Borno Provides Special Camp For Nigerian Deportees

SAN FRANCISCO, May 09, (THEWILL) – Relief is coming the way of the over 6,000 Nigerians recently deported from Niger Republic as the Borno State Government has provided them with a new special camp to rehabilitate those who are from the state.

The new camp brings the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in the state to 21.

Chairman of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) , Alhaji Grema Terab, who disclosed this while receiving the first batch of 1,200 deportees at Njimtilo, the entrance to Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, said the state government establish the new camp for the deportees because of their special case.

He said another set of 17 mass transit buses had been dispatched to Geidam to convey the second batch of 1,200 persons, adding that more people were still being expected.

“The 2,400 are not the only people we are expecting back in Borno from Niger and provisions have been made to get them housed in one of the 400 Housing Estate along Gubio Road,” he said.

Justifying the reason for the establishment of the new special camp, the NEMA chief said “some of them, though Nigerians, were born in Niger and have never been to Nigeria:we have to keep them in a camp for now, console them and treat those that are traumatised with the intention of allowing them to mix with other Nigerians in not too distant a time.

“We are equally looking at the possibility of assisting them to start a new life in the country by given them economic assistance.”

Speaking further, Grema said: “When we are sure of the local government of the deportees, we will allow them to mix up with their people in the other local governments, we will also involve them in the larger programme of rehabilitation of the victims of the insurgency.”