Bauchi IDPs decry lack of hospitals, schools in settlement
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who fled from Borno state and are presently taking refuge in Bauchi state have decried the non availability of social amenities like hospital, school and access road in their settlement situated at Rindiben village in Bauchi local government many years after their migration to the place just as an NGO has visited the camp to donate some items to them.
Head of the settlement, Malam Bulama Gujja while responding to questions from Journalists during a tour to the settlement by a Non-Governmental Organisation in the state known as ‘Fahimta Women And Youth Development Initiative’ (FAWOYDI) lamented that the non-availability of the amenities is making life uncomfortable for the settlers.
According to him, they were displaced by insurgents from their communities in Borno state where they had occupations to cater for themselves and families but were forced to come to the new settlement in Bauchi for fear of the terrorist attack.
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He further said that they now engage in peasant farming ‘to keep body and soul together’ calling on the state government to provide them with amenities to enable them to live more comfortably.
“We live peacefully here only that our children do not go to school due to the absence of any and we don’t have a hospital to attend to our sick people. If we must take our sick people to the hospital, we have to go all the way to Inkil in the state capital” he added.
Bulama Gujja further said that ” You have to pay a motorcyclist N500 to take you to the hospital and many of our people cannot afford that”.
While appreciating FAWOYDI, ActionAid for donating consumable and non consumable items to them in recent time, the former Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara for providing boreholes to them, SEMA, NEMA for providing relief materials and philanthropists Hajiya Hamra Imam and Hajiya Samira Galadima for building a mosque and wells, Gujja said the provision of hospital, school and access road are very essential.
Also responding, another internally displaced woman, Hadiza Bulama revealed that pregnant women give birth in the hands of traditional birth attendants among them due to lack of maternity clinic in the area.
Earlier, the Program Officer of FAWOYDI, Mr Tosin Zuberu told the internally displaced persons that the NGO was on a tour to the place to see their situation with a view to linking them up with relevant government ministries, departments and agencies that could bring succour.