Rice and other grains meant for IDPs in Adamawa is missing, Heads of districts in the region called on the federal government to look into this theft
An investigation revealed that this theft has been going on for a long time The disappearance of 71 trailers of rice and other grains allocated to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Adamawa State by the federal government has spurred reactions from some quarters.
It was reported that 71 trailer loads of grains arrived in Adamawa to help the IDPs and this was flagged off in an elaborate ceremony by the deputy governor Mr. Martins Babale.
Guardian reports that the victims of Boko Haram insurgency who were expected to receive the rice did not get it as the food went missing. Mr. Emmanuel Tsamdu who is a member of the state House of Assembly said that community leaders from his constituency confirmed that only 250 bags of 50kg of rice got to Madagali as against the two trailers of 600 bags of 50kg per one trailer load.
He urged the federal government to set up a committee to investigate the theft of the grain menat for the IDPS. Mr. Bello Ichadi who is the district head of Guluk, headquarters of Madagali council revealed that only five district heads of the council received 50 bags of 25kg rice, making a total of 250bags for the entire Madagali council.
This is in spite of the fact that the region is one of the worst hit of Boko Haram disaster due to its proximity to Sambisa forest. It was also discovered that Madagali Chiefs were in 25kg bags even though the rice and other grains were packaged in 50kg bags which indicated that they had been rebagged.
Mr. Haruna Furo who is the secretary of the State Emergency Management Agency said that although his agency is in charge of managing IDPs in the state, it was not responsible for the distribution of food from the federal government. He said: “I cannot tell exactly what went wrong with the distribution, because we are the agency that is charged with the responsibilities of taking care of IDPs.
But we were not involved in recent exercise, it was done in Abuja; even the sharing formular. Many people are calling my office, bringing complaints, but the only thing we can say is we are not part of the exercise, so we don’t know how the distribution was done and the formular that was used.”
investigation revealed that a syndicate within the National Emergency Management Agency is responsible for the illegal diversion of relief materials meant for IDPs. The syndicate, according to a source in Maiduguri, Borno state capital has been engaging in this unwholesome act at the detriment of displaced persons in camps for a very long time.
