Akwa Ibom evacuates 38 stranded indigenes displaced by bandits’ attack in Katsina

No fewer than 38 Akwa Ibom indigenes displaced in Katsina State, following attacks by bandits have been flown home on the orders of Governor Udom Emmanuel.

Disturbed by the security crises in Katsina where some Akwa Ibom indigenes were killed and their houses razed, Emmanuel had directed the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Dr Ini Adiakpan, to “ensure the safe return of our displaced people in Katsina”.

However, Adiakpan, it was gathered, had immediately contacted the President of the Akwa Ibom community in Katsina, Chief Effiom Anietie Mfon, who facilitated the evacuation of the Akwa Ibom Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Katsina, who were flown home at the weekend.

Narrating their ordeals at the Women Development Centre (WDC) on the Ibrahim Babangida Way, Uyo, the state capital where they are currently camped, Chief Effiom lamented that “some of us had been killed and our houses burnt by the bandits.

“Some of us, their whereabouts remain unknown at the time we left Katsina. It was just like a sudden war; they arrived in numbers and started attacking every home and randomly setting fires on houses.

“I had to rally everyone and we escaped with the children and women to where we stayed until the state government came to our rescue. I want to sincerely commend and thank the state governor for his swift response to our Save Our Soul (SOS) plea,” Chief Effiom said.

To effectively re-integrate the returnees, Mrs Adiakpan has assured that “the state government has made provision to re-settle you back home here and ensure the children get the benefit of the free education policy of the government”.

She, therefore, charged the war victims to “forget the trauma and think of starting a new life back home in Akwa Ibom”.

Some Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) including Friends of the Needy Organisation (FONO) led by Lady Eme Atakpo, were some of the concerned charity groups that have donated detergents, noodles, beverages, clothes and other items to the IDPs.

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