Borno sets up 21st IDPs’ camp for deported indigenes from Niger

The Borno State Government on Saturday established a camp for the indigenes of the state, who were recently repatriated from neighbouring Niger Republic.

The establishment of a special camp for the repatriated indigenes, who are among the over 6,000 deported from Niger after the attack on two of the country’s islands by the Boko Haram sect, takes the number of camps established for Internally Displaced Persons in the state to 21.

Speaking to journalists while receiving the first batch of 1,200 deportees at Njimtilo, at the entrance to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, the chairman of the State Emergency Management Agency, Alhaji Grema Terab, said the state government decided to establish a new camp for them because of what he termed their special case.

Terab, who disclosed that another set of 17 mass transit buses had been sent to Geidam to convey the second batch of 1,200 people, added that the number would increase with the likelihood of the Nigerien Government repatriating more people.

He said, “The 2,400 are not the only people we are expecting back in Borno from Niger and provisions have been made to get them housed in one of the 400 Housing Estate along Gubio Road”.

The SEMA boss said the camp was created for them because of their peculiar situation.

He added, “Some of them, though Nigerians, were born in Niger and have never been to Nigeria. We have to keep them in a camp for now, console them and treat those that are traumatised with the intention of allowing them to mix with other Nigerians in not too distant a time.

“We are equally looking at the possibility of assisting them to start a new life in the country by given them economic assistance”.

Terab said the state government was not ruling out collapsing the new camp into the 20 already in existence after few months.

“When we are sure the local government of the deportees, we will allow them to mix with their people in the other local governments.  We will also involve them in the larger programme of rehabilitation of the victims of the insurgency”, he said.