Plateau: ‘Bukuru incident halted passage of relief materials’

[DT]

The Plateau State government said last night that relief materials meant for the people did not get to them yesterday mainly because of an explosion in Bukuru, near Jos, that affected movement in the Bukuru area.  "We were on our way there this morning (yesterday) when the incident in Bukuru occurred and everyone was thrown into confusion and our progress to the place was delayed," Sarah Yusuf, Plateau State Commissioner for Environment who is in a charge of a committee set up by government to alleviate the condition of the displaced persons told Daily Trust.

She said her team got to Shong late because of the Bukuru incident and that the team suffered another drawback in not finding the targeted people as they were not there.

"We later found them in Dogo but observed that we would need security cover to deliver the relief materials and we have now got the deputy Commander of the STF to provide us the necessary security cover to get there tomorrow (today) morning," she said.

Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said it concluded arrangement to visit the people today for proper assessment and subsequent provision of necessary relief materials.

But National Secretary of the Miyetti Allah organization Alhaji Sale Bayeri said last night that the agreement reached was that by Sunday 12 midnight the government would provide foods and relief materials at all the camps. "But for the past 28 hours no single government official showed up; no foods and it's raining all day; no blanket; some were sick," he said.

Also, the Special Task Force (STF) said yesterday that providing relief materials for the affected people was not part of the agreement and commitment it reached with them.

Spokesman of the Task Force, Capt Salisu Mustapha, told Daily Trust in Jos yesterday that the Task Force had achieved the cardinal objective of agreeing with the affected people on a site for their temporary stay and that they required other government agencies to provide them with relief materials.

Daily Trust