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The House of Representatives on Wednesday called on relevant agencies of the Federal Government to carry out a reintegration plan for Internally Displaced Persons across the country.
The decision of the House was sequel to the adoption of a motion on notice during Wednesday’s plenary, sponsored by the member representing Eleme/Oyigbo/Tai Federal Constituency, Rivers State, Mr Felix Nwaeke.
Speaking on the substance of the motion, the Rivers lawmaker noted that as of April 2024, the internally displaced persons in Nigeria were estimated at 3.3m persons living in over 300 camps across Benue, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, and Zamfara States.
He said, “The visitations by humanitarian organisations and government agencies to these camps are immersed with calls for improved welfare, feeding, and security of the displaced persons in these over 300 camps.
“There has to be a plan on how to prepare these persons who had been forced out of their homes and subjected to living conditions lower than they are used to psychologically, emotionally, and physically to reintegrate them back to a normal standard of living.
“If the displaced persons, most of whom are women and children, are returned home after relative peace is restored in their communities without a structured reintegration plan that would be providing cash assistance, food and clothing, and psychological and emotional counseling and support; it would amount to insensitivity to their plight and, at most, abandonment.”
Following the adoption of the motion, the House urged the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction and the National Emergency Management Agency to conduct an assessment of the situation in the IDP camps across the country and draw up a reintegration plan for IDPs.
It also mandated its Committee on Emergency and Disaster Management to ensure compliance.
