Former Minority Whip in the 5th Senate and a former Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Matters to late President Umaru Yar’adua, Senator Mohammed Abba Aji has expressed utmost concern over the increasing cases of unwanted pregnancy among teenage girls within the Internally Displaced Persons camps in Maiduguri, Borno state.
Speaking on the demands by the IDPs from Bama Local Government Area who protested last Sunday wishing to go back to their communities, the Former Senator, who is also an IDP as he hail from Bama, said, he was in full support of the demands by the IDPs.
He said that the psychological trauma which the IDPs and those living within the host communities are undergoing as a result of their pathetic conditions has made it unbearable, hence their reasonable demands.
He said there is raising tension in the camps as the displaced persons are left with no option than to forcefully vacate the camps to go out in search of food.
His words; “I am seriously worried over the pathetic situation of our IDPs in camps. There is no enough food for them to eat, Cholera is killing many of them, their children are not going to school in the last three years and there is no job for them.
” About 47 teenage girls from Bama in one of the camps have been forcefully impregnated, one of the pregnant girls is 14-year-old. They are living with their parents in the camps, and the parents watch the inhuman treatment of their children while in camps.
” When I received the distress calls that many of the IDPs wanted to trek back to Bama and pick up their pieces, I concur with them, but I advised them to exercise patience and follow the proper channel and be law abiding.
‘” As we speak, they have all agreed to go back to their various camps pending appropriate arrangement by the security agencies and the government.
“Although, Government is doing its best to see that it rebuilds Bama that was completely destroyed by the insurgents, it is unfortunate for me to learn that the reconstruction and rebuilding work in Bama have been unceremoniously stopped,” Senator Aji said.
It would be recalled that thousands of IDPs mostly from Bama, taking refuge in Maiduguri vacated their camps on Sunday and protested, saying they will trek back home, but with intervention of Police Commissioner, Mr. Damian Chukwu who appealed to the protesters to wait until security arrangements were made for their safety and escorts are concluded to take them through the Sambisa forest back to Bama.
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