From SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri –
Borno Governor, Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno state on Saturday disbursed N65 million cash for critical humanitarian needs, to 8000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) households in Rann, headquarters of Kala-Balge, a remote remotest local government area in Nigeria.
Kala – Balge, which is located in the central part of Borno State, has no banking services, while it is impossible to convey or fly food items to the area.
The visit was Governor Zulum’s fifth similar humanitarian trip to Kala-Balge since he assumed office in May 2019.
Rann, headquarters of Kala-Balge can only be accessed by road through the Republic of Cameroon due to flooded road from a dam discharge in Central Africa which trapped Nigerians in Rann, cutting them from traveling to others parts of Borno and denying them access to farmlands which are also flooded, making the villagers mostly buy food supplies from a border village in neighboring Cameroon Republic, for livelihoods.
Zulum, during Saturday’s trip, supervised the disbursement of the N65 million cash to 8,000 IDPs families who are mostly, widows and the vulnerable residents in Rann to enable them buy food and other basic needs from the Cameroonian border village.
Each family (called household) in the community was given between N10,000 and N5,000 cash because there is no banking service in Rann where 5,000 Male householders received N10,000 each, while 3,000 of their female counterparts received N5,000 and 10k bag of rice each.
In all visits, the Governor supervised the distribution of food and non-food aid to residents, many of them were in critical humanitarian needs and before traveling to Kala-Balge, Zulum was in Kaduna on Friday for Northern Governors’ meeting, but he used the trip to inspect some property owned by the Borno State Government in Kaduna town.
The property include Kaduna lodge and palace of the Shehu of Borno, the Governor’s Lodge and Liason Office, Government Staff Quarters, and Borno Hotels NM where he ordered technical evaluation of those properties in need of rehabilitation.
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