NASS to make case for 2.1m IDPs – Zoro

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NASS to make case for 2.1m IDPs – Zoro 
By; OJO SHOLA, Kaduna.
Chairman, House of Representative Committee on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Honourable Mohammed Sani Zorro has said that his committee is working on an enabling law that will legally back humanitarian organisations in serving over 2.1 million displaced persons in Nigeria.
Hon. Zorro who is representing Gumel/Maigatari/Sule Tankarkar/Gagarawa Federal Constituency of Jigawa State,  also said that the committee would bring under one umbrella all such organizations; both governmental and nongovernmental to have robust laws to make them function legally.
The lawmaker who is a one-time National President of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) stated this while fielding questions from Journalists shortly after attending the 40th day fidau prayer for the late mother of former Vice President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Issa Aremu, in Kaduna.
According to the lawmaker, the IDPs camps were not peculiar with North East, but that other parts of the country are also experiencing such camps.
“What we are now trying to do in essence at our committee level is to fashion out enabling law, a robust law that will allow all the genuine actors in the humanitarian assistance field to function without any hindrance.
“There is a need to come up with an operational frame work that will enable all governmental institutions like NEMA, National Rehabilitation Commission, National Commission for Refugees and those that are not backed by law like Presidential Initiative on North East, or Presidential Committee on North East, and all those that may emerge afterwards to come under one umbrella, to have a robust law that will be so wide as to allow all of them to function legally. This is the stage at which we are.
“The focus of my committee is to facilitate all the objectives of these organisations so that these IDPs and our Refugees in other parts of the country will be returned back to their villages and towns after they have been rehabilitated, reconstructed and reconciled.
“There are 2.1 million IDPs in different camps. But they are spread in communities, and you cannot even estimate the exact and accurate number of IDPs because many of them are putting up with their relations in remotes villages across the country.
“So far we are engaging with those interested organisations at the level of Nigeria, and other UN agencies, such as United Nation High Commission for Refugees office of Nigeria, UN office for Humanitarian Assistance, and quite a number of them have been giving us alot of support.
“And there are also laws like Kampala declaration which is on IDPs and Refugees which are domesticated, excerpt those laws are domesticated, Nigeria cannot key into them,” he added.

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