Gov. Babagana Zulum of Borno says he resisted shedding tears while watching displaced persons queuing for distribution of relief materials.
Zulum stated this during the distribution of food and non-food items to 19,000 displaced households on Tuesday at Gajiram, headquarters of Nganzai Local Government Areas of the state.
The governor, who directly supervised the distribution of the items, was dismayed over the life-threatening and critical conditions being experienced by the displaced people occasioned by the insurgency.
He said: “When will our people stop queuing to receive relief items.
“I charge you all to cooperate with the security operatives to enable them to restore normalcy in our land so that our people can go back to their farmlands.
“We cannot continue to depend on food aid to survive, with the kind of resources we inject in providing relief items, you can only imagine the development projects we would have executed.”
Zulum reiterated commitment to end insurgency so as to fast track resettlement, recovery and peace restoration process.
He called on the elders, stakeholders and communities to cooperate with the security agencies by providing information on suspicious movements and activities in their communities.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that about 11,300 housewives received clothing materials and N5,000 each, while 7,800 men received one bag of rice and maize as well as three litres of cooking oil each.
The beneficiaries were displaced persons taking shelter in host communities and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the area.
Meanwhile, Zulum had visited Mega Primary School, Gajiram in Nganzai, and supervised the ongoing enrollment exercise to facilitate the resumption of academic activities.
The governor assured provision of necessary support to ensure that schools were reopened in the area.
“Education is a game-changer; you have to ensure that enrollment figures will match with classroom capacity. I will provide uniforms, reading materials and other facilities to ensure sustainability,” he said.
Zulum had on Feb. 2, 2019, visited Gajiram to assess the damage and ordered for the rehabilitation of the municipal building, palaces and other public structures vandalised by insurgents to facilitate the restoration of civil authorities in the town.
NAN also reports that the governor was accompanied on the visit by Rep. MT Monguno (APC-Monguno-Marte-Nganzai); Hajiya Yabawa Kolo, Chairperson, Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), and other officials.