N12bn needed to rebuild Yobe, says governor

YOBE State governor, Ibrahim Geidam, says the state will require N12 billion to rebuild structures destroyed by insurgent group, Boko Haram.

The governor gave the figure on Saturday when he received the Minister of Women Affairs, Senator Aisha Alhassan, who was on an advocacy visit to the state.

With the return of peace in the state, the governor said majority of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have returned to their ancestral homes, while 3,000 were still being catered for at the official camp in the state.

On the funds required for the rehabilitation, Governor Gaidam told the minister that the process had gone beyond the financial capacity of the state.

He called on the Federal Government to assist the state in actualising the rehabilitation of the insurgency ravaged areas.

The governor, however, praised the macro finance scheme policy of the Buhari administration, saying it would go a long way in benefiting the women folk and the underprivileged.

The minister said she was in the state to ensure the well-being of the IDPs as well as fact-finding on the social protection programme of the Buhari administration.

Senator Aisha further stated that it was one of the priorities under the administration to provide a macro-finance scheme to the tune of N1.6 billion.

This, according to her, would be shared among benefiting women in the state while benefiting states would receive N200 million.

She also highlighted that in the course of her visit, she would interact with the IDPs with a view to discovering if there were issues of violation against women and children in the camps.