The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) is deeply worried by the alleged
deteriorating condition of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the
North East of Nigeria.
The Islamic human rights organization raised the alarm in a statement
issued and signed by its founder and director, Professor Ishaq
Akintola, on Tuesday, 8th January, 2019.
“According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), a global
organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building
a better future for refugees, there are 2.4 million displaced people
in the North East of Nigeria.
“This figure includes 471,000 IDPs in Cameroon, Chad and Niger and
more than 228,000 refugees. Borno State government has also registered
42,000 orphans and 200,000 widows as a result of Boko Haram
insurgency.
“In our own opinion, the Borno State government is overwhelmed as the
number of IDPs in the state alone is higher than the population of the
federal capital territory. These IDPs suffer from hunger and various
ailments due to poor hygiene occasioned by the unhealthy environment
in which some of them are kept.
“MURIC appeals to state governments all over the federation to rise to
the occasion. The North East is facing a humanitarian crisis of
monumental proportion. Drugs, food items, clothes, beddings, sanitary
materials, etc are what sister states, charity groups and wealthy
individuals can send to the Borno State government. We are most likely
to avoid a spill-over effect if we can quickly rally round the
government of Borno State. That is the true spirit of one Nigeria.
“In particular, we charge the Federal Government (FG) to make special
allocations available for the relief of the IDPs. It is equally
germane at this juncture to ask FG to expedite action on the North
East Development Commission (NEDC) which we advocated for and which
was approved about two years ago. Why have we not been hearing
anything about the commission?
“We remind Nigerians of the need to actively support those who are
suffering among us. Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him) made kindness to fellow homo sapiens on earth a proviso for
receiving mercy from those who are in heaven.
“Before we take a break, we will like to advocate severe punishment
for theft, diversion, abuse or misuse of any relief material meant for
IDPs”.
