Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The Northern Inter-Faith and Religious
Organizations for Peace (NIFROM) has expressed dismay over the
suspension of relief support for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
in the Boko Haram ravaged North-east part of the country after the
insurgents reportedly ambushed its aid workers.
Its National Coordinator, Bishop Musa
Fomson, while addressing journalists on Saturday in Abuja, condemned
the attack in strongest terms, but maintained that the attack was a
deliberate excuse by the U.N to suspend its relief operations and pull
out it’s workers.
The inter-faith organisation emphasised
that it took the horror pictures that emerged from the IDPs camps in the
North-east to provoke the intervention for which the convoy came under
attack.
Fomson stated: “It took the horror
pictures that emerged from the Internally Displaced Person’s (IDPs)
camps in North-Eastern Nigeria to provoke the intervention for which the
convoy came under attack. Interestingly, it took just that one attack
for the UN to announce a suspension of the humanitarian efforts.
“The feeling we have is that the attack
provided a much needed excuse for these agencies that have no interest
in doing anything for the tens of thousands of people dislocated by Boko
Haram. Had there been no attack it would have been a question of time
before they cook up another excuse that would have still been used to
suspend the so called humanitarian efforts.
“It is hypocritical that the same world
body that that did not do the needful to halt Boko Haram’s rise has
agencies that are today making a show of providing relief to affected
persons. Had there been a prompt international response to the threat of
Boko Haram in the initial stage we would not be at this point now,” he
noted.
The inter-faith group also slammed the
Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, for not carrying out a proper
assessment of the situation before reacting to it.
According to him, “The amounts allocated
for the North-east would have done something meaningful towards
rehabilitating the population had the institution, the National
Assembly, that Dr Saraki presides over as chairman performs its
oversight functions diligently and curb the corruption associated with
local relief efforts.”
Further details later
No comments:
Post a Comment