Rebuilding Yobe to take N12 billion, says Gaidam

Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe has said government and donor agencies are expected to expend N12 billion to rebuild the state destroyed by Boko Haram insurgency.

Gaidam disclosed this at the weekend in Damaturu, when he received the Minister of Women Affairs, Senator Aisha Alhassan, who was on a visit to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the state.

The governor said that the funds required for rebuilding the affected council areas are beyond the financial means of the state government.

He, therefore, called on the Federal Government to assist the state government commence rehabilitation and rebuilding of destroyed houses and public building structures.

According to Gaidam, with the return of peace to this state, most of the IDPs have gone to their ancestral homes, while 3, 000 are being resettled in official camps.

He added that the Federal Government should assist the state fully rehabilitate and resettle over 300, 000 Boko Haram victims.

He also commended the Buhari administration for establishing the micro finance scheme policy for IDPs, noting that this would go a long way in assisting the women folk and the less-privileged in society.

The minister informed the governor that she was in the state on an advocacy visit, as well as a fact-finding mission on the social protection programme of the federal administration.

Alhassan said one of the plans of the Buhari administration is to provide a macro finance scheme of N1.6 billion.

She said that she would visit and talk with IDPs over the violation of women and children’s rights within and outside the camps in the state.

Alhassan explained that the macro finance scheme was aimed at empowering the less-privileged and Boko Haram victims in the state.