Delta state government has advanced two important reasons why it cannot build camps for internally displaced persons again in the state.
For over three years the state government has been building camps, converting schools to IDP camps for Deltans sent packing by flood which has almost become a yearly ritual.
As the flood overtakes communities built along rivet banks, residents of those communities are usually moved to safer havens by the government. What the government does is to build temporary structures in the upland communities for the period the flood lasts.
There, the government provides food and other basic necessities for the comfort of the people. But, according to commissioner for environment, Chris Onogba, the state government has taken step to examine the system and concluded that it would stop the gesture.
Onogba, however, gave reasons for the decision of the state government. He told journalists under the aegis of a ndigenous correspondents chapel that many people who claim to be displaced and go to the camps only go there to search for food to eat.
He said the people take advantage of the free food and move to the camp to take care of their stomach and return to their homes.
“We visited some camps and discovered that most people affected did not go to the camps. But government felt displaced persons were in camp and sent food to them, but they were actually not there. It was people who needed food but displaced that go to the camps,” Onogba said.
He also said the 3rd wave of COVID-19 is already threatening the nation, so it would not be advisable to bring people together in such crowded form again. This is so because if it is done, it will be good ground for the spread of the virus
