Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
The House of Representatives Committee on the North East Development Commission (NEDC) has queried the Commission’s refusal to distribute food items and other relief material deposited in its stores in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, for the displaced victims of Boko Haram terrorists.
The Chairperson of the committee, Hon Khadija Bukar Ibrahim, while inspecting the NEDC warehouse in Maiduguri with other members, expressed concern that bags of food items, including bags of grain and non-food items, were kept in the warehouse amid incessant complaints of lack or shortage of foods by Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
She urged the Commission to reform the bureaucracy in food distribution to ensure IDPs do not suffer unnecessarily.
‘The bureaucracy of sharing the food is too much. I think you should change the system. Let the food get to the end-users as soon as possible, because we will not be doing well to the people if we continue to allow the foods lay here,’ she advised.
She commended the NEDC for procuring the heaps of foods and other relief to support the victims of insurgency in the North-East. She said the committee was impressed with such effort but further asked the commission to step up its food distribution process.
She said the House committee was in Maiduguri for oversight function, to access the NEDC ‘to see what they’ve been doing in the last one year.’
NEDC Managing Director Mohammed Alkali, while conducting the committee members round an IDPs camp and some of the project being undertaking by the Commission in Maiduguri, explained some of the interventions of the commission.