By Simon Egbebulem,

Sunday, August 9, 2015 was one of the worst days in the life of Pastor Solomon Folorunsho, the Coordinator of the International Christian Center for Missions, who took it upon himself to cater for over 1,000  Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), who are victims of the Boko Haram insurgency, camped at Uhogua community in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State. On that day, residents of the serene community woke up to find over 50 trucks of armed security men stationed in strategic areas of the IDPs camp.

Fear gripped the traditional ruler and residents of the community as if it was a war situation. The security operatives were on ground to evacuate the IDPs and relocate them to Kano and Jigawa States on the directive of the Presidency. Prior to the incident, the General Overseer of the camp, Pastor Folorunsho, had been quizzed by men of the Department of State Service, DSS, and the Brigade Commander in Benin-City, over the identity of the IDPs.

However, the armed security operatives faced resistance from the little children who refused to be moved. The children ran helter-skelter trying to evade the operatives. Some of them, weeping, pleaded that they should be left to remain in the camp. Folorunsho, who watched helplessly, also pleaded that the children should be allowed to remain with him, since they have found another home in the camp. The operatives listened to the pleas of the children, most of them orphans.  Solomon, who looked visibly confused and tired, later told Sunday Vanguard, “God knows we are here only to do His work by taking care of these displaced children. That is my calling. We don’t have any security issue here and I pray that government will allow these children remain because they are already in school, they see this place as home now; it is going to affect their psyche if they are relocated”.

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State returned to Benin City, from Abuja, on Monday, about 10:30am when he learnt about the incident. He immediately consulted with security chiefs in the state and was told that the instruction to relocate the children came from the Presidency. Oshiomhole flew back to Abuja to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari to convince him to allow the IDPs remain in Edo since there were already plans by the state government to take over their welfare.

The governor got the approval and stormed the camp in company of his wife, Lara, on Tuesday.  It was a joyous moment for the children and Folorunsho who could not stop praising God for what Oshiomhole did. Oshiomholem came with 500 bags of rice, five cows and packaged food with which the First Lady fed the children. Lara, who hugged and played with the children, said she had taken them as her own children, assuring that their needs will be provided. Oshiomhole was welcomed by the Chairman of Ovia North East LGA, Mrs Lucy Omagbon, the Enogie of Uhogua, Ekiroguaghen Eresoyen, and host of political leaders from the area. It was a carnival. The governor interviewed the children in Hausa language and, flowing from the discussion, he was convinced that they were actually victims of Boko Haram insurgency. Addressing the mammoth crowd, Oshiomhole said: “I can see the children are from different states of the North, from Taraba, Borno, Kano, Yobe, etc, they are very young children. We have to do everything to ensure they are comfortable .

We have discussed with security agencies, they will ensure that adequate security is provided to secure the children. Those of them that we have identified their parents, we will arrange, at the expense of the Edo state government, for them to meet their parents so that they can reunite. They can leave them behind if they wish but at least they will be assured that their children are in good hands. I have assigned about seven senior officers, two Commissioners and others to this task. I have asked the Commissioner for Education so that we will commence the building of a primary school here so that no child will be denied quality education in Edo. I know they already have what you call school but in the state we have standard. We are particularly keen in ensuring that no child is denied education. It does not matter if they are not from Edo but we are one Nigeria, once you are in the state you are part of us. We will build and

furnish and transfer to the Mission”.

Reacting to the botched attempt to relocate the children, Oshiomhole said:  “I am not aware of the attempt to relocate them. But I think the attribution of the relocation move to me resulted from communication gap. And that is why I was angry with a television station because, while I was struggling to ensure that they remain here, they reported that I asked them to leave. That was wicked. What is more painful is that while the TV station was doing that, I was doing everything humanly possible to ensure that these kids are allowed to stay here. I did not have any hand in the decision to relocate them.

I had to see the President to appeal to him that these children remain here and that we will take care of them. The recent issue was just because of the impression that some of the kids wanted to reunite with their parents, but we said it was better for their parents to come here and see their children. It was actually communication gap. One thing is clear, nobody had any negative motive, but if they were errors, they were errors of the head not of the heart.

“My position is this, having lived in the North all my life, it is this job of governorship that brought me to Edo. All my life, from the age of 15, I have been in the North. So, for me, anywhere any Nigerian found himself or herself, that is his place. In this state, we don’t have indigenes, we don’t have settlers; that is why we abolished discriminatory fees, we abolished everything that talks about indigene ship and that is why we are extending the Edo school brand to this location so that these children will attend Edo quality schools and be taught by Edo well motivated teachers. These children, by the special grace of God are no more orphans; myself and my wife will do our best to treat them like we treat our own biological children until they grow up and make their own decisions. We have about 1.5 million displaced persons in the country today; it is a huge humanitarian challenge and all of us, as Nigerians, this is the time our humanity is called into question and we must show that we do have the capacity to love our neighbours as our selves”.

On his part, the Enogie of the community, Ekiroguaghen, who gave the governor a gift from the palace, stated: “This is the day the Lord has made in our lives. I am gladdened that the First Lady said she has taken them as her children.  I thank God for counting my community as one of the cities of refuge according to the scripture. Secondly, Mark, when the children were coming to receive Jesus Christ and the disciples were trying to chase them away, my Bible tells me that Jesus Christ told them not to disturb the children. So I thank God that I happen to be one of those that received Jesus Christ in my community and at the same time received God in

my community.  I thank the man that is catering for these children, a single individual.  I want to use this opportunity to join him, and other individuals, to care for these children. They are children who once have parents like us, like some of them are saying that it is very disheartening that in their presence their parents were murdered by Boko Haram. Whenever I remember that, my heart bleeds; so I thank God that my community has been counted among them centers harbouring these displaced people. I thank God now that the Comrade Governor is here, he is the father of all and he loves children. My heart is gladdened because if the governor visits here, it means the Federal Government is aware of this place. You can see NEMA camp here. I trust the governor and we are happy he has assured us that the state government will take over this place”.

Narrating how the security operatives invaded the community, the royal father stated: “We saw a lot of vehicles and the children vehemently refused, to say they don’t want to go back. They have found a home here and I am glad that the governor went to see the President to say the children should remain here. The children wept seriously that day that they don’t want to go and it was a pathetic sight. The media should help to add voice to this children, let us help them by letting the public know. Whenever I see these children, my heart bleeds, some of them are just 2,3,4 years. But we thank God today that the governor has taken over their welfare, the entire community is grateful to him”.

Pastor Folorunsho, asked how he felt after the Sunday incident, said he would not want to discuss it,, saying,  “ I don’t want to remember that day because it was like hell seeing the children crying. Some call it relocation, some call it evacuation but one thing is that we thank God we have passed that stage; the governor helped us to remain here and continue our good work. This place is a church center, we are a ministry, the NGO is an arm of the church, which is Christian Home for the Needy. We have been in existence since 1992, ministering to those in need in this country. So it was in 2013 that we decided to add the Boko Haram victims who are traumatized; we said `let’s see how we can help them to survive the trauma’.  I am so happy today, God will bless Oshiomhole”.