BY RIMI ALIU
THE Borno State Government has uncovered about 550 fake Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the state.
The fake IDPs were discovered after the government conducted a headcount of displaced persons at the Mohammed Goni College of Islamic Legal Studies camp, in Maiduguri.
This was disclosed in a statement on Sunday by the Special Adviser on Communications and Strategy to the Governor, Isa Gusau.
He said, “At about midnight on Sunday, Governor Babagana Zulum visited Mohammed Goni College of Islamic Legal Studies in Maiduguri, where Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Abadam were being camped.
“Zulum immediately sealed the entrance and supervised a headcount to identify actual IDPs, in order to put a stop to rampant cases of dubious residents pretending to be IDPs, claiming food rations meant for displaced persons.”
Gusau noted that the governor discovered that out of the 1,000 IDP households in the records of humanitarian officials, only 450 were genuine IDPs, while the rest 550 were ghosts.
“In humanitarian system, a household normally consists of at least six persons who are either related through families, or chosen to stay together for the purpose of receiving household aids,” he explained.
According to him, the Governor is not averse to approving support for vulnerable persons in the state.
“Already, there is a committee attending to such people, a case where some residents of Maiduguri are making dubious claims in other to take what is meant for IDPs while also benefiting from other welfare packages targeted at non IDPs is unacceptable,” he stressed.
