Plateau: IDPs to return home before Christmas

The Special Military Taskforce (STF), has perfected plans to resettle internally displaced persons (IDPs) back to their ancestral communities before this yera’s Christmas, according to Plateau STF Commander, Major General Augustine Agundu.

Gen. Agundu who spoke in Jos on Wednesday said plans are on top gear to ensure that the IDPs scattered all over Plateau State returns home before Christmas.

“We can assure you that the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), will return home to spend Christmas. Most of them who spoke to me have said they want to spend Christmas in their villages and I responded by putting measures in place to guarantee their safety.

“A Strike Force Base is currently being set up in various locations within each troubled community from where troops will patrol to and fro on a regular basis to boost the confidence of the returnees and to guarantee their resettlement,” the SMT Commander said.

According to him, “Starting from December we will lead the men to return home after which the women and children will follow suit and before March 2019 all IDPs would have returned home”.

The STF boss also said that a committee was set up to visit over 40 troubled communities out of which 25 villages were identified to have major challenges of disaster and seven villages abandoned as a result of fear of being attacked.

“The Headquarters of the STF also known as Operation Safe Haven (OPSH), had earlier composed a committee to assess the extent of destructions within deserted villages and the possibility of establishing strike Force Base as a prelude to encouraging IDPs to return to their ancestral homes.

“The committee under took painstaking tour of 40 villages in which their findings categorised into three which are villages that were abandoned out of fear of insecurity, villages that were attacked with some houses partially destroyed and villages that were attacked with some houses completely destroyed”, Gen. Agundu said.