From John Adams Minna
It was a sigh of relief as the Senator representing Niger East Senatorial district from Niger State Senator Mohammed Sani Musa on Thursday distributed cash and other relief items worth millions of naira to the over 10,000 Internally Displaced People (IDP) in Shiroro local government area of the state as a result of bandits attacks.
The Items donated to the IDPs include 150 bags of rice, 20 bags of garri, 15 bales of blankets, 60 bales of mats, 3 bales of children clothes, groceries, seasonings among other essential commodities.
Over 10,000 people including women and children from eight wards namely Gwada, Kuta, Galkogo, Zumba, Gurumana, Erena, Bassa and Allawa in Shiroro local government have been sacked from their communities by arm bandits and current taking refuge at three different IDP camps in Kuta, Zumba and Gwada.
Apart from the 10,000 Displaced People, a number of others have been killed while severals abducted with millions of naira paid as ransom by their relations.
Presenting the Items to the beneficiaries across the three IDP camps on Thursday, Chairman, Senator Mohammed Sani Musa Advisory Council, Alhaji Baba Sule Bisalla, Sarkin Shanu Zazzau Suleja said the gesture by the senator is to reduce the hardship being faced by the people.
He disclosed that apart from the relief items, the .Senator also donated N1.5million cash to be shared among the IDPs “in order to help them meet up with other challenges of staying and taking refuge in strange lands”.
According to him, the Senator whose five out of the nine local government areas in his constituency are currently under siege from bandits, is deeply touched by the humanitarian crisis caused by the activities of the gunmen, stressing that people are being turned refuge in their own land.
Meanwhile Niger Youths under the auspices of Shiroro concern Youths has commended the senator for the humanitarian gesture towards the people, described the donations as very timely
According to the Shiroro concern youths in a statement by the Co-Convener, Sani Abubakar Yusuf Kokki, “This humanitarian gesture wouldn’t have come at a better time than now considering how the target beneficiaries are in dire need of intervention of this nature”.
He said fleeing people have been impoverished as a result of low purchasing power arising from abject poverty which now force them to depend solely on handouts.