Officials take inventory of the items to be distributed
By our reporter
The Kebbi State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has come to the rescue of the persons displaced from their fishing and farming activities on the shores of Lake Chad by the insurgency there.
The displaced persons are currently living in makeshift thatched rooms on borrowed plots of land at Bayan Oando area of Birnin Kebbi.
Items handed over to the leaders of the displaced persons are 3 bags of beans, 3 bags of rice, 2 bags of millet, 1 bags of maize, 4 cartons of Indomie, 3 (10KG) bags of salt, 10 tubers of yam, 2 (10ltr) gallons of vegetable oil, 5 cartons of bottled water and 3 cartons of detergents.
Leader of the group Umaru Waliyi who received the items, expressed gratitude to the Kebbi State Government for remembering them. He said the items came at a time their families are struggling to shrug off the cold weather, which has adversely reduced their capacity to provide for their families.
A boy looks with interest at the items inside SEMA pick-up van
The immediate neighbor of the displaced persons, Alhaji Yakubu Ahmed-BK (Maibindiga) noted that although an effort such as this is commendable, he appealed to the state government to look for ways to provide soft agricultural loans to the hundreds of the displaced persons – all of whom are indegenes of Kebbi, industrious and very successful farmers and fishermen in their former fertile abode in northern Borno.
“It is good to help them with what to eat today and tomorrow, but it will be even far better if their energy and capacity are channeled towards empowering them to secure funds and farmlands to till the land, feed their families and add value to the food chain of the country. And if the loan is made to revolve amongst them and is successful, it can be extended to other categories of vulnerable persons across the state,” Maibindiga counselled.
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