Benue government thanks development partners for empowering vulnerable people

Executive Director of Benue State Emergency Management Agency BSEMA, Sir James Iorupu, commends development partners and the National Emergency Management Agency NEMA for their continued support in empowering vulnerable people in the state did.

Iorupu spoke during a brief conversation with journalists at his office in Makurdi over the weekend.

He said donor agencies had supported internally displaced persons and internally displaced persons in the state for the past seven years through the provision of food and non-food relief items, and called for further assistance as the intensifying humanitarian crisis overwhelmed the state. He said he requested it.

Mr. Iorpou acknowledged the involvement of other international donor agencies, particularly the International Organization for Migration (IOM). IOM is currently conducting biometric identification of all internally displaced persons in the state with a view to ascertaining the actual number of displaced persons for better planning.

He said his reason for participating in the exercise was his disappointment in his first meeting with development partners that there was no verifiable data on internally displaced persons in the state when he took office.

“I was not satisfied with the information I received. I was given figures that the number of displaced people from 2018 to 2023 was stagnant.

“I was told that the IDP population in Benue State was 2.1 million, but my concern was whether the camps were taking in new IDPs and whether the number had increased or decreased as a result. “There was no progress or regression,” he said.

Source: dailypost.ng