There were 2m IDPs as at 2020. 1m Nigerians have been added as refugees in their own country over the past 12 months

Tuesday, 09 November 2021 05:50

There were 2m IDPs as at 2020. 1m Nigerians have been added as refugees in their own country over the past 12 months - Official

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Over one million Nigerians have been internally displaced in the past 12 months, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons has said.

Federal Commissioner of the NCFRMI, Imaan Sulieman-Ibrahim, disclosed this while defending the budget of her agency before House of Representatives Committee on Internally Displaced Persons on Monday.

Ms Suleiman-Ibrahim informed the committee that the total number of internally displaced persons in Nigeria is about three million.

She also said Nigeria is host to about 73,000 refugees from 23 countries while over 500,000 Nigerians awaiting repatriation from Chad, Niger, Cameroon, Mali, Libya and other countries.

As part of measures to cope with the increment in IDPs, she said the commission is working on building resettlement cities in Borno, Kano, Edo and Katsina.

She stated that Zamfara State was on the original plan but the commission resolved to build the city in Kano State because of difficulties in acquiring the right for the land.

The commissioner said the budget of the commission is not sufficient to take care of five per cent of its mandate.

Muhammadu Fattahu (APC, Katsina) queried the duplication of responsibilities by the National Emergency Management Agency, NCFRMI and North-east Development Commission. He said most of the line items in the budget of NCFRMI are also replicated in those agencies.

He questioned the N25 million annual rent paid for the headquarters and urged the commission to approach President Muhammadu Buhari for one of the seized properties.

The commission was also queried for not completing most of the projects in its budget despite over 60 per cent of funds released.

In the 2021 budget, N13.38 billion was appropriated for capital projects, N705 million for personnel cost for 458 staff and N1.6 billion for zonal intervention projects.

For the 2022 estimate, N1.7 billion was appropriated for personnel and N4.5 billion for capital component.

After the interactive session, the lawmakers dissolved into executive session.