Gov. Hyacinth Alia has announced plans to close some Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Benue as a result of improved security in the state.
Alia made the announcement during a media chat with the Renewed Hope Ambassadors Presidential Media Team, led by Mr. Bayo Onanuga, the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Strategy.
The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that the team is in Benue to inspect completed and ongoing Federal Government and state infrastructure projects across the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
Alia said improved security, supported by Federal Government intervention, had created relative peace, enabling many displaced persons to voluntarily return home and resume farming.
He said security indices were being monitored through security agencies deployed across the LGAs, traditional institutions and residents, who provided useful information on developments within their communities.
The governor recalled that 15 IDP camps had been established across the state following attacks and displacement.
He, however, noted that the improved security situation was gradually changing the narrative.
“We are already making some plans to close down some because the IDP occupants have voluntarily gone back to do their farming,” Alia said.
He said the state government was working with the international community, including the United Nations and International Organisation for Migration (IOM), to achieve sustainable solutions for displaced persons.
According to him, the objective is not merely to return displaced persons to their farms, only for them to flee again, but to create conditions that would enable them remain safely in their communities.
Alia said the declining number of residents in the camps was encouraging, noting that many returnees were not only farming but also rebuilding their houses in their ancestral communities.
