Nigeria: Internally displaced persons figure hits 981,416 —NEMA

THE Federal Government has carpeted Non Government Organisations (NGOs) for falsifying the number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) for financial gains as the number of IDPs hit 981,416 as at January 9, 2015.

Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji Mohamed Sani Sidi, made the disclosure, on Tuesday, at a meeting held to discuss issues pertaining to IDPs with USAID, in Abuja.

Alhaji Sidi, who faulted the three million IDPs figure provided by a group, said it was produced by deploying verifiable scientific methods.

To authenticate the NEMA figure, Alhaji Sidi said an independent enumeration carried out by IOM tallied with NEMA’s figure.

Disclosing that the IDPs figure released was not permanent, Alhaji Sidi stated that the registration of IDPs is a daily exercise going on at the camps located in the various parts of Bornu, Yobe and Adamawa states.

He said NEMA, in conjunction with states emergency management agencies and officials at local government headquarters were on a daily basis compiling the numbers of internally displaced people.

On the pattern of displacement, the NEMA boss stressed that the movement is from the rural areas to local government headquarters while others move from the local government headquarters to state capitals. ...NigerianTribune