The number of Nigerians displaced in the northeast region has reached the 5 million mark, speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has said.
Because of this, the speaker said, the House is looking at the possibility of setting up a standing committee for IDPs, whose main preoccupation is to cater for the displaced Nigerians. The speaker said this yesterday when he received the head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Ms. Angel Dekonge Antangara in the National Assembly.
Dogara’s revelation contradicts the earlier figures of 2.1 million IDPs number, the figure which the speaker himself refuted. “As an indigene of the North East, it is safe to say the number of IDPs in Nigeria can be up to 5 Million. The NHCR deals with symptoms of terrorism which is the displacement,” he said.
He appealed for help from anywhere it can be gotten, even from bodies as UNHCR and said: “Terrorism is global and if not dealt with; it will spill across borders such as the current refugee crisis facing Europe from Syria, Libya, etc.” The Committee on public safety and national intelligence will be mandated to handle issues relating to IDPs for now. “If they are overwhelmed however; a substantive Committee for IDPs will be looked into. The House is ready to partner with all relevant bodies committed to ending the evil that produce refugees, IDPs and the events of statelessness,” he added.
Earlier, Ms. Antangara told the Speaker that the office is providing solutions both locally and worldwide. The UNHCR, according to her, intervenes for people termed as stateless or borderless and that she is in Nigeria to look at the MoU UNHCR has with the country. “I hope Nigeria will sustain its pioneer role in the security and resettlement of IDPs as well as Parliamentary input to sensitizing on the right of IDPs as human beings,” she stated.
