By Sunday Efa
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has donated food items worth millions of Naira as well as an undisclosed amount of money to the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) at camp in Obutong, Bakassi.
The donation which was made through the commission’s Directorate of Education, Health and Social Services on Tuesday is seen “as part of the organization’s commitment to the wellbeing of her people,” said the Chairman of the NDDC board, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba.
Represented by his communication aide Mrs. Clara Braide, Ndoma-Egba said the visit and donation was a response to a request by the IDPs.
“We are here to identify with the plight of the IDPs in Cross River State. They wrote to us, requesting for this and we responded because we are ready to stretch our hands of love to them. As an interventionist agency, we will continue to support them,” Braide told newsmen.
Earlier, Ndoma-Egba in his remarks averred that: “President Muhammadu Buhari administration is very committed to the peace and well being of the Niger Deltans and we will continue to work to ensure that peace return to every community within the region.”
He promised the IDPs that such gesture won’t stop as “it is just one of the things in stock for them.”
The leader of the seventh Senate reiterated his understanding of the many challenges they face and pledged that the commission will “continue to support them because the government of the day is empathetic towards the region and its people.”
Commending the gesture by the NDDC, the national coordinator of Bakassi IDPs camps, Prince Ashton Joseph Inyang expressed joy for “stories said as frame has today become a reality.”
He said this was due to the fact that: “many agencies have come here to ask our problems but never returned.”
The Camp Leader, Moses Bassey in his remarks decried the painful state of the camp as a result of lack of basic social amenities.
These according to Mr. Bassey include hospitals, schools, water, and security among others
“We thank the NDDC for the visit but we have many other problems. It is our desire that this support should also expand to other areas like organising skills acquisition training for us because the government has stopped training us,” Bassey said and advocated for more housing units and the resumption of the conditional cash transfer scheme.
Meanwhile, in a related development, the representatives of the New Netim community in Odukpani local government area, whose people were displaced by ravaging communal clash with the Qua clan also in Odukpani were in the commission’s office on Monday in Calabar to receive relief items and cash.
The head of the New Netim community, His Highness, Ntufam Raphael Ita while receiving the gifts commended the efforts of NDDC and appealed for help from well meaning body corporates as “some of their houses were lost amidst the communal clash.”
The Monarch appealed to the commission to help them with building materials and “enough money to enable them rebuild their houses.”
Also, he commended the NDDC for the assistance even as he prayed that: “They should do more by assisting us with building materials and more money to rehabilitate our houses. I also appeal to government agencies and NGOs to come to our aid.”
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