COVID-19: Edo govt. donates 200 bags of rice, other food items to IDPs

 The Edo government has donated food items to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp at Ohogua, near Benin, to cushion the effect of the Coronavirus pandemic at the camp.
Mr Solomon Folorunsho, the camp Coordinator and cleric with International Christian Centre (ICC), disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Benin.
He listed the items received to include 200 bags of rice; 50 bags of beans; 180 bags of garri; 20 cartons each of ground nut oil and palm oil.
Folorunsho said that the state government’s donation came in handy, as the camp had nearly started experiencing hardship occasioned by food scarcity.
According to him, the camp currently accommodates no fewer than 2,500 IDPs from the North East region of the country.
“The government officials that brought the food items met our warehouse empty.
“We have never had it so bad with food since 2013 when we started receiving children into the camp. It was so bad that we had to start rationing food.
“So we saw the donation of the food items from Edo government as a miracle because we weren’t expecting anything from any quarter.”
“We usually boil 15 bags of rice for a meal for the population at the camp,” he said.
Folorunsho added that management had restricted movement into the camp to contain the spread of Coronavirus.
He said apart from creating designated points for hand washing, a point had also been created where items being gifted the IDPs were being kept.
“The security agencies held series of meetings with us on how to protect the camp from the virus and we came with a solution that people bringing things to the camp would not be allowed to enter again.
“What they do now is that when they bring these things, they drop them somewhere with the help of security agencies, who also protect themselves.
“What we do thereafter is to disinfect the items before taking them into our warehouse,” he said. (NAN)