• Chibok girls rescue remains priority – US

President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that his administration has begun the process of putting together comprehensive data on all Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Nigerian refugees with a view to speeding up their resettlement.

He gave the assurance when he received the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Samantha Power, at the Presidential Villa.

Buhari told Power that the compilation of reliable data on the IDPs and refugees was being handled by designated federal government agencies, the military and other security agencies.

“We have frightening indices of the number of people and the situation in the IDP camps across the country. And in spite of the government’s efforts and the hospitality of individuals and organisations, the situation needs better handling.

“A large segment of the IDPs are mostly women and children. Some of the children are orphaned and don’t know where they came from.

“‎Now we are working on getting a comprehensive data of all the people in the camps, so that the government and NGOs will be properly briefed on where and how to support them,” he said.

He said those IDPs, who were farmers before the calamity befell them, would be mobilised and assisted by the ministry of agriculture to return to their farms.

In her remarks, Power commended the Federal Government for always being the first and highest responder to the IDPs in various camps in the country.

While fielding questions from State House Correspondents on the pledge of the US to assist in the rescue of the abducted Chibok school girls, Power said their release remains a priority to the US.

She said: “The issue of the Chibok girls and other abductions is of huge priority to the U.S. And it was the issue I discussed at length with President Buhari today.

“We had moved to provide the information and intelligence needed to the Nigerian authorities. We have, in recent months, been able to allocate additional information sharing platforms and additional surveillance to aid the fight against Boko Haram.

“We will not rest, we will continue to deepen our partnership and be more effective with out partners on the ground. We are determined to support Nigeria and other neighbouring countries’ efforts to secure more rescues of adopted people and releases in the days and weeks ahead”.

Asked if the authenticity of the video of the Chibok girls released by Boko Haram was discussed, she said: “What we talked about was the importance of pursuing every need related to the Chibok girls and making sure we have mechanism whereby parents and family members, who have been adopted by Boko Haram, can be given information, whereby videos can be examined and family members offer their feedbacks on their impression on the videos to have a process by which family of those who are missing, work more constructively with the government and, indeed, with those involved in the operations, in trying to rescue the girls.

“The recent video was one part of our discussion and the larger puzzle that will need to be assembled”.

Power, who had earlier visited Nigerian refugees in Cameroun, said the situation in the camps could be improved with more information on the number of people in the camps and their areas of need.