Governor Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno State has ordered the immediate closure of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Bama, the largest displacement facility outside the state capital, Maiduguri, while also hinting that the Gwoza camp would follow suit.
The Governor announced this on Thursday in Gwoza shortly after an assessment visit to Government Secondary School IDP camp.
“We visited Bama yesterday and supervised the screening of IDPs, and by 12 noon, Bama IDP camp should be closed,” Zulum stated. “Today we are here in Gwoza, we have profiled all of them, and Insha Allah, in the next two or three weeks this camp will also be closed.”
According to Governor Zulum, the return has been made possible by the relative peace now prevailing in most communities hitherto occupied by Boko Haram insurgents.
In the past seven years, Borno State Government has successfully resettled several communities in Bama Local Government Area, including Darajamal, Nguro Soye, Goniri, Banki, Abbaram, Ngoshe, Kirawa, Warabe and other locations across the state.
However, Governor Zulum expressed deep concern over the rising criminality within IDP camps, pointing to the proliferation of illicit activities that have turned these facilities into hotspots for social vices. “In our camps now, there is an ongoing criminality; we have identified all of them and they’ll be resettled based on their localities and to their community heads. Otherwise, Boko Haram/ISWAP are gradually infiltrating the camps.”
He also raised the alarm over the disturbing trend of people leaving their homes to resettle in camps to collect relief items from non-governmental organisations. The Governor hinted that a significant number of fake IDPs had been identified during the screening exercise, stressing that the government cannot sustain the maintenance of camps under such circumstances.
The Governor also hinted that the Gwoza IDP camp would follow the Bama camp in the next phase of closures. Several other camps in different parts of the state will also be closed before his tenure ends, Zulum noted.
“Many of those that are residents living in their homes are returning to the camps to receive handouts from non-governmental organisations. We will ensure the returns are sustainable. One year ago, this was almost a ghost camp with not more than about 400 households. It is surprising that about 3,000 households are back in the camp, and most of them are residents living within the town.”
