Nigeria internally displaced persons hit 981,416, says NEMA

Faults NGO’s report

CITING insurgency, natural disasters and communal clashes, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Tuesday said that 981, 416 people have been displaced all over the country.
 Director General of the Agency, Mohammad Sani-Sidi while reeling out the figure Tuesday in Abuja during a humanitarian meeting United States Agency for International Development (USAID) faulted reports of Internal Displaced Persons by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).
Stating that the International Organization for Migration (IOM) had already verified the data provided by the agency on the number of IDPs across the country, he said, “those figures that are being brandished by international non governmental organizations (NGOs) and the media are not correct.”
Sani-Sidi alleged that the NGOs scaled up the figures of the IDPs so as to attract increased funding from international donors, as IOM, an international NGO came up with figures that are not quite different from that of NEMA.
He said “I am happy with this meeting because this is the kind of platform that we have been looking for, when you read in the pages of newspapers and other international media quoting different figures of displacement and people making pronouncements that have no basis, we are concerned as a government with such baseless figures.”
 IDMC in its global estimates of internal Displaced Persons put the number in Nigeria at three million.
He said “IDMC went and released the number of displaced person in the country and we say that is fraud and we are going to going through the due process to challenge that figure because they put together the number of IDPs over the years, how can you do that just to be able to raise fund, so we say it is very fraudulent and we are going to challenge it.”
“We are happy that our figure has been verified and IOM has come up with figure that is similar to our own, anybody interested in caring out a scientific way of gathering information can go ahead.”
Pointing out that there may be issues with the management and coordination of IDPs, he said the insurgency is a new phenomenon in the country, so NEMA should be absolve of some of the negative issues. He affirmed that the agency is not resting on its oars in ensuring that the IDPs are well taken care. He said, “of course there are gaps as there is no perfect situation even in civilized countries.”
He pointed out that the Boko Haram terrorist attacks in the Borno, Yobe, Adamawa have led to a decline of socio economic activities in the states and the contingent states of Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba, including the FCT have suffered immeasurable lost for having to host the IDPs.
NEMA DG further disclosed that 9.6million people have been affected by the insurgency in the north eastern state of Adamawa, Yobe and Borno, adding that 120,077 students were affected by the insurgency.
The IDMC, established in 1998 at the request of the Interagency Standing Committee on Humanitarian Assistance, is the leading source of information and analysis on internal displacement. For millions of people worldwide displaced within their own country, IDMC plays the role of a global monitor and evidence-based advocate to influence policy and action by governments, UN agencies, donors, international organizations and NGOs. IDMC’s unique global function has been recognized and reiterated in annual UN General Assembly resolutions.