Over 1,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) currently taking refuge in Ibadan, Oyo State capital have indicated their desire to voluntarily return to their respective home Local Government Areas in Borno State to start a new life, following the successful dislodgement of the terrorist Boko Haram insurgents in the North East.
The IDPs comprising Muslims and Christians who were made up of middle-aged men, women and children staged a peaceful rally at Ring Road area of Ibadan over the weekend where they bared their minds on the various challenges they had been contending with ‘as refugees’ since the past three years.
Speaking though their Chairman and Secretary, Mr. Philemon Obadiah Aga and Mallam Amada Usman respectively, the IDPs told journalists that “even though Oyo State has been a good and hospitable host state”, majority of them have found it extremely difficult to secure gainful employment just as life is increasingly becoming difficult for them to bear on daily basis.
“Consequently, we are having feeding and healthcare challenges coupled with malnutrition while our children cannot be enrolled in schools”, the spokesmen lamented.
Aside these, they said they have been battling on daily basis with accommodation problem as over 10 people squat in one room, mostly in uncompleted buildings where security operatives incessantly swoop on them and effect indiscriminate arrests.
While praising President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for successfully wiping out the Boko Haram terrorists in the North East, particularly the Southern Borno Senatorial District where majority of them hail from, they pleaded profusely with the Federal Government as well as Oyo and Borno State Governments to assist in proving logistics for their evacuation back home “as soon as possible”.
“We have resolved to go back home and begin our lives anew without further delay, as we strongly believe that home is home, whatever the circumstance,” they concluded.
