Refugees from post-election riots: Groups decry poor camp conditions, task govts on welfare

Map of Nigeria highlighting Kaduna State

On 4 June, two groups, namely the Arewa Youth Forum (AYF) and the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Muslims Forum, both decried the conditions of people displaced by the post-election violence last April, and appealed for more active response from governments, regarding their welfare and security needs.

Speaking for his group, the National President of the AYF, Alhaji Gambo Ibrahim Gujungu, told newsmen in Kaduna that although government was doing its best to provide succor to the displaced persons, a lot still needed to be done.

He observed that the N15,000 cash stipends given to each refugee family to secure accommodation in Kaduna State, was severely inadequate. He urged the state government to review the amount upwards, to enable the displaced persons leave the camp and secure rented apartments. He said a provision of N50,000 would have been more realistic towards the accommodation needs of victims.

The AYF leader also urged the Kaduna State government to ensure that the Judicial Commission of Inquiry it set up to investigate the crisis swings into action immediately so that the culprits would be fished out and prosecuted.  He said that punishing those indicted over the post-election violence would serve as a deterrent to other would-be killers and looters in the North and across the country.

Alhaji Gujungu further suggested that the Federal Government should establish a military joint task force which should be deployed across the state, especially in Zonkwa, Kafanchan, Zaria and other flashpoints, in order to curtail future crises.

On its part, the ABU Muslims Forum described the conditions of the refugees staying at Hajj Camp, Kaduna, as pathetic, requiring urgent attention from the state government.

Speaking after a visit to the refugees, the Ameer of the Forum, Dr. Mustapha Isa Qasim, observed that: “It is unfortunate the way these people are being treated by the government. We discovered that the refugees are living on donations from individuals and organisations. We feel that the government has neglected them”.

He said: “Some of them (the displaced persons) are still with gun-bullets on their bodies. More than ten women have given birth in the camp and they are still there at the camp. Had it been that the government has any respect for the refugees, they would have evacuated the pregnant and nursing mothers to a special place…It is unfortunate that these people are being maltreated and nobody seems to care”.

Dr Qasim said the Forum would donate food items, medicine, clothes and money to the refugees, but he also argued that the government must do more.

He said: “Government should rebuild houses for them and ensure that they put adequate security in place so that these people would not be attacked again”.