NSCDC: Nigeria Needs Volunteers to Cater for 2.7m IDPs

Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

The Commandant of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Ekiti State Command, Mr. Olatunde Fayemi, has revealed that Nigeria’s 2.7 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) require the sacrifices of volunteered Nigerians to give them befitting care.

Fayemi said: “The outrageous and worrisome number of victims made it expedient for the country to boost its capacity for conflict resolution mechanism, and fight against social ills that were triggering crises, drug abuse and sectarian attacks.

The commandant stated these in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, yesterday at a press conference marking the International Civil Defence Organisation Day 2022, with the theme: ‘Civil Defence and Management of Displaced Population in Face of Disaster and Crisis: Role of Volunteers and Fight against Pandemics’.

In commemoration of the celebration, Fayemi led NSCDC men and officers round Ado Ekiti metropolis to offer medical services, clear drainages, and perform traffic control, as part of their contributions to nationhood.

Regretting the increasing number of IDP victims, Fayemi said: “Nigeria currently has an aggregate of 2.7million IDPs spread across the Northeast, Northwest and North Central of Nigeria.

“These are people were displaced by Boko Haram invasion, bandits, kidnapper, flooding and many other natural and human activities that were avoidable.

“These persons need the resources of volunteers to take care of them as government alone cannot solve it. We are all worried at this high number of refugees and we have to do more to prevent further escalation.”

On the recurrent fire incidences in IDPs camps, Fayemi said they were not intentional and that the federal government is fortifying the Federal Fire Services and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to curtail such occurrences.

Delving into the world’s politics, he

said the raging Russian-Ukraine war had displaced thousands of people, killed many and destroyed infrastructures in the Eastern Europe, with echo of third world war resonating as NATO and world powers joined the fray.

Fayemi said the warring countries must embrace conflict resolution mechanism to avert the escalation of the local problems being encountered by other countries through displacement of their citizens.

The commandant stated that the kinds of volunteerism needed by IDPs are that of social services, care and donations, which can give them the best of care and protection as legitimate citizens.

“NSCDC started as volunteer organisation before we were regularised in 2003 through the Act of National Assembly.

“Giving care to the IDPs requires all of us coming together with good sacrificial spirit to take care of them properly. The public must make more impacts and commitments in their services to humanity,” he stated.

Fayemi described Ekiti as one of the most peaceful states in Nigeria, saying it has no permanent IDPs camp, except those that were temporarily displaced by flooding and fire incidents, whom he said had been quickly resettled by the state government.