From Olukayode Idowu, Maiduguri
In an attempt to fish-out fake households in the state’s Internally Displaced Persons’ camp, Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, sneaked into the Mohammed Goni College of Islamic Legal Studies, where IDPs from all the local government areas of state were being camped, at midnight on Saturday.
The governor paid a surprise visit to the camp to ascertain the actual numbers of the IDPs in the state.
A Borno State Government tweet revealed that “the governor immediately sealed entrance and supervised the headcount to identify actual IDPs”.
According to the tweet, the move is to put an end to rampant cases of dubious residents pretending to be displaced, who spend day times at IDP camps to share food meant for IDPs, and return to their homes in the night to sleep.
Zulum explained that some of them were also beneficiaries of other food palliatives from the state government.
In his word: “My mission, which ended past 1am, on today (Sunday) I discovered that out of 1,000 households in the records of humanitarian officials, 650 households were ghosts.
“450 households were found to be real IDPs after my midnight headcount which was conducted by me alongside an official of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Air Commodore M. T. Abdullahi, and two commissioners (Agriculture, and Local Government and Emirate Affairs)”.
He added that 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.
Officials who were part of the midnight headcount said Governor Zulum was not averse to approving support for any citizen who may be in need of food since there is a committee doing that.
However, the governor is vehemently opposed to some residents making dubious claims in other to take what is meant for IDPs while also benefiting from other existing welfare activities that target non IDPs.
