Karu – The Niger Sanitary Industry Limited, Ikeja, Lagos State on Sunday distributed relief materials worth N500,000 to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), at their Kuta village camp in Karu Local Government of Nasarawa State.
Mr Akuta Chinedu, the firm’s Marketing Manager, who supervised the distribution, said that the company was moved to assist the IDPs because they found their conditions “very critical”.
Chinedu decried the living conditions of the IDPs and urged the Federal Government to intervene in the areas of education and healthcare.
“The camp needs competent teachers ; it also needs someone to foot their hospital bills. Government should step in quickly,” he said.
He said that the Kuta camp was the first beneficiary of the gesture because it was the closest to the Abuja office of the company.
Pastor Joseph Ayuba of Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, who witnessed the distriubtion, also called on the government to establish a clinic to serve the IDPs to replace the first aid boxes provided by his Church.
“The Church has done its work by providing where to stay, but we need government to come in. The IDPs need a proper clinic to tackle their health challenges,” he said.
The clergy said that his Church, in collaboration with its American branch, had already built 72 houses, including a dispensary and a Church, for the IDPs.
Malam Bello Madugu, Chairman of the camp, who thanked the company for the concern, said that the camp had volunteer teachers, but that their number was insuficient.
` ` We shall be happy if we can have professional teachers,” he said.
Madugu urged government to provide farm tools to encourage the IDPs to go into full farming.