Nasarawa IDPs starve, in absence of security, water
Over 8,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) taking refuge at Central Primary School in Kadarko, Keana local government area of Nasarawa state, have complained of none supply of relief materials to the camp.
Secretary-General of United Farmers Association in Kadarko,Mr. Denis Utsa made the complaint on behalf of the IDPs when he led officials of the association on advocacy visit to the leadership of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Nasarawa state council, at the weekend in Lafia, the state capital.
He stressed that since the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) arrived camp four days after the attacks by suspected herdsmen on their villages in Dooka community in Doma local government of the state, they have been staying in the camp without food, water and health facility.
According to him, the IDPs were excluded from the distribution of relief materials earlier donated to some IDPs camps in Keana and Awe by the state government, leaving them to their own fate.
Utsa added that the attacks on the villages along border communities in Doma, Awe and Keana have rendered over 20,000 of his members homeless with loss of over 12 lives including farm produce worth millions of naira also destroyed by the attackers.
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He identified the gap between government and the communities in the state, of none inclusion of Tiv in traditional institution in Kadarko chiefdom, saying that absence of Tiv representation at the traditional institution in the area has contributed to the lingering conflict between herders and farmers in the area.
He regretted that matters that could have been resolved by traditional leaders at the communities level sometime escalated violence due to none inclusion of Tiv in the traditional institution at the various levels in the state.
He therefore called on the state government to create chiefdom in the Tiv speaking areas of Kadarko, Keana, Awe and Doma and Lafia local government areas in the state,as according to him, doing so would create synergy and better understanding between the Tiv tribe and other ethnic nationalities in the state.
Responding, Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Nasarawa state council, Comrade Dogo Shammah, who sympathized with the officials of the association over the hardship being experienced by their members, assured their plight would be made known to government through media reports.
Augustine Kuza, Lafia
