Senate president Bukola Saraki, has stated that the Senate will investigate the severe hunger and nutrition crisis in the Internally Displaced Person’s (IDP) camps in the North East.
On Thursday, August 18, hundreds of women from camps in Borno state took to peaceful protest and barricaded the Maiduguri-Kano/Jos road.
While reacting to the protest, Saraki described the development as desperate and reiterated his calls for better coordination amongst government and international aid agencies.
He further emphasised the need for Nigeria to quickly operationalise a more effective and efficient humanitarian response infrastructure to address the dire situation.
“It is important that we all focus on eliminating the coordination, access and food supply issues hindering us from successfully feeding the millions of IDPs.
“This is particularly important for the many children who are dying daily from starvation. It should break every Nigerians heart to know that our own women and children are enduring such horrendous hardships”, he stated.
The Senate president further called on the police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other law enforcement agencies to quickly move to investigate the diversion of food aid deliveries, stressing that government officials and contractors should be held to account for how truckloads of provisions intended for the IDP camps mysteriously went missing.
“Anyone that is found to be diverting the food aid deliveries should be investigated and brought to book if investigations prove their participation in these vicious schemes. Profiting from a complex humanitarian crisis is unacceptable.
“The people of the North East have suffered enough indignities in the past four years from the marauding Boko Haram terrorists. Stealing food meant for starving children is beyond the pale and only adds insult to injury”, Saraki stated.