FG spends N1.2b on resettlement centres for border communities
The federal government has spent N1.2 billion to establish Emergency Resettlement Centres for communities on the country’s international borders.
The Director General of the National Boundary Commission, Alhaji Saddiq Diggi, who stated this at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum yesterday in Abuja, said that was made possible through the effort of the Presidential Resettlement Committee.
He said that the emergency resettlement centres were established to provide social amenities for the affected communities after the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’ s ruling on the Nigeria/Cameroon boundary dispute.
He said the presidential committee, among other things, was assigned the responsibility to identify and register returning Nigerians from communities that were transferred to Cameroon.
Other responsibility, he said, was to identify suitable locations for their settlement, provide facilities to the identified areas and recommend ways through which the federal and states governments as well as local government could assist the affected areas.
‘’In Kebbi the committee visited three of the affected villages in conjunction with the state government to inform them about the movement and they agreed to move back to Nigeria,’’ he said.
“In order to make life meaningful and averagely comfortable for them, some social amenities were put in place such as schools, health centres, market stalls, multipurpose halls and water for human and animal consumption,’’ he said.
Other amenities provided included a central borehole for the villagers, immigration and customs post, police post, ambulances as well as community television viewing centres.
“All these facilities are now ready for commissioning,” he said.
He also said that the government had gone ahead to locate a virgin land known as Zogonkala, where they could moved to if they so wished .
On the Nigeria/Niger border, he said all what were done for other villages were also provided.
“But what Niger will do with villages that fall into Nigeria, we are yet to know,’’ he said.
On the boundary between Chad and Nigeria, he said “it is mainly water so not much can be done about that.’’
“ But with that of the Nigeria and Benin, a lot has been done although they have not yet relocated, they know they are the owner of the other side,’’ he said.