NEMA assures Abia IDPs of FG’s intervention

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has assured the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Isu community of Arochukwu Local Government Area of Abia that the Agency was making efforts to provide them with relief materials.
The assurance was contained in a statement issued in Umuahia on Tuesday by Mr Chimezie Okoroafor, a Media Assistant to Mr Evans Ugoh, the NEMA Coordinator in charge of Abia/Imo, Owerri Zonal Office, stated this in a statement issued in Umuahia on Tuesday .
Okoroafor said that Ugoh gave the assurance when he led some staff members of the agency on a fact-finding assessment to the community.
The NEMA coordinator promised the IDPs that Federal Government would soon come to their aid.
He appealed to the National Boundary Commission to take urgent steps to delineate the boundary between the community and its neighbouring communities in Cross River in order to put an end to the lingering dispute between them.
He thanked Abia Government and the security operatives in the area for their efforts so far to bring peace to area.
Also, Mr Sunday Jackson, the Executive Secretary of Abia State Emergency Management Agency, was quoted to have described the Isu situation as a complex humanitarian emergency.
Jackson expressed worry over the number of natives that lost their lives to the protracted crisis and the plight of the IDPs.
He called on the Federal Government to come to the rescue of Isu people without further delay.
Earlier, Eze Mortimor Ogbonnaya, the Traditional Ruler of Obieze Isu Autonomous Community, thanked NEMA for the visit.
Ogbonnaya regretted that his visist to NEMA headquarters in Abuja and the office of the Inspector-General of Police at the beginning of the crises to solicit their timely intervention yielded no meaningful result.
The monarch, however, expressed confidence that the visit by the NEMA and SEMA officials would bring relief to the distraught community.
Mr Felix Okoro, the President-General of Isu Progressive Union, alleged that his community was attacked on April 18, 2018, adding that many houses were burned down, rendering many natives homeless.
He traced the crisis to the discovery of a limestone deposit in an Isu land, which the Utuma people were allegedly claiming ownership of.
He said that following the attacks, the people of Amachi, Ugbu and others in Isu were displaced, adding that at least 40 persons had so far died in the attack.
Okoro said that a majority of the IDPs moved into a primary school in the area for shelter, while many others relocated to neighbouring villages.
Some of the IDPs were quoted as saying that they could no longer go to their farms to avoid being killed.
They said that the situation had brought untold hardship to them since 2018, when the crisis broke out. (NAN)