The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has inaugurated the construction of 500 housing units in Bauchi, the Bauchi State capital, as part of its effort towards rebuilding the sub-region ravaged by insurgents.
The commission has also launched the distribution of food and non-food items to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who are taking refuge in the state.
Newsmen learned that the state Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, yesterday inaugurated the projects at Dungal community in Bauchi Local Government Area.
It was also reported that while flagging off the distribution of food and non-food items, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the commission, Alhaji Mohammed Goni Alkali, said the NEDC handed over 10,000 bags of rice (25kg); 12,000 gallons of vegetable oil; 10,000 bags of sugar; 2,000 cartons of spaghetti; 3,000 cartons of macaroni as well as non-food items such as blanket PCS 2,000 (Pcs); Mats 2,000; mosquito nets 2,000; mosquito hand band 10,000 and others for distribution as well as distribution of food and non-food items to IDPs who are presently taking refuge in the state.
Speaking at the foundation laying ceremony, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, Alkali, said the gesture was in compliance with the directive by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management to construct mass housing units across the sub-region following the displacement of communities by activities of insurgents.
Alkali, who expressed the commission’s determination to achieve its mandate to ensure equitable provision of humanitarian support across the sub-region, noted that arrangements have been made for the award of scholarship for the 2022 academic session as part of its education intervention.
He said the commission was established to address developmental challenges in the North-east region and to restore means of livelihood of the people following the over 12 years of insurgency, adding that the situation has led to the massive influx of people in the urban areas with most of them taking shelter in any available public spaces, homes, schools, huts, abandoned and uncompleted buildings, while many trooped to neighbouring North-eastern states just as hundreds settled in the IDPs camps across the states.
In their remarks the Chairman, Senate Committee on Special Duties, Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf, and the Chairperson of the House of Representatives Committee on the NEDC, Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim, urged those concerned to facilitate the approval of adequate budgetary provision for the commission to sustain its activities.