Senate to donate N20m for internally displaced persons

Amidst the worsening insurgency in the North East geo-political region and the attendant displacement of many citizens from the area, the Senate, on Tuesday at plenary, resolved to donate the sum of N20 million towards the rehabilitation of the refugees.
The Senate also urged the Federal Government to involve the international community in the provision of relief materials for the internally displaced persons in the Boko Haram ravaged northern states of the country.
Senate similarly called on the federal and state governments to double their efforts towards rehabilitation of the internally displaced persons by providing more relief materials for the refugees scattered in some northern states and the neighbouring countries of Niger and Cameroon.
The upper legislative chamber made the resolutions sequel to a motion of urgent public importance brought to the chamber by the Senate Deputy Leader, Abdul Ningi.
Ningi, who represents Bauchi Central on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had come under Order 42(2) of the Senate Standing Order 2011 (as amended) to move the motion on the increasing number of refuges in the North East as a result of the terrorism in the region.
He recalled that item 7 of the Senate’s resolutions on the extension of the emergency rule in the crisis stricken zone urged the Federal Government, in conjunction with state governments, to come up with an Economic Marshal Plan to revive the economy of the economically and educationally backward parts of the country.
The politician, however, lamented that he had not seen much efforts from both levels of governments towards the implementation of that particular resolution, noting that the affected zone and the displaced citizens had been passing through serious agony.