By Obiejesi Kingsley

President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, has lamented that corruption among officials of government agencies coordinating humanitarian relief to the Internally Displaced Persons Camps in the Northeast has eroded the confidence of international donor organisations in the ability of the country to manage relief items.

Saraki spoke when he inaugurated the Senate Adhoc Committee on “The Mounting Humanitarian Crisis In the Northeast” on Tuesday.

The senate president, who said he had visited the IDP camps in the northeast twice and seen the scale of the humanitarian crisis, urged the committee to unravel the amount of money released so far and the allegation of diversion of grains and other items.

“You will all agree with me that this is a serious problem for this country. We’re talking about the lives of over 400,000 children and over 1.5 million IDPs,” he said , while urging the committee to profer solutions on how to sanitise the situation in order to win back the confidence of the international community.

Chairman of the committee, Shehu Sani, in his remark said the committee was set up following  a motion on the crisis in the northeast debated on the floor of the senate on October 4.

He said the humanitarian crisis in the IDP camps was caused by “government agencies who engaged in the exploitation of desperate  Nigerian IDPs,” adding that the country has now been put on “Level 3” by the United Nations, meaning the country with the highest humanitarian crisis in the world.

Sani stated that his committee would conduct a public hearing on the situation in the northeast to find out: How much has been released, investigate diversion of releaf items and reasons for the “insignificant presence” of the Federal Ministry of Health in the displaced persons camps.