By Simon Ebegbulem
BENIN—Armed security operatives deployed, Saturday evening, to the internally-displaced persons, IDPs’ camp in Edo State, with the aim of evacuating them, broke down in tears as weeping children ran helter-skelter in the rain, begging to remain in the camp.

They told the over 50 security operatives that they were being taken care of by the missionaries in the camp, spear-headed by the Pastor Solomon Folorunsho-led Overseer of International Christian Centre for Missions.

The emotional operatives, including policemen, National Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Department of State Services, DSS, and the Army, who wanted to effect their relocation to Kano and Jigawa states, suspended the action, as the pleas and cries of the over 1,000 IDPs got to them. It was a pitiable sight.

Pastor Folorunsho, who Vanguard gathered had been interrogated for several weeks both by the police and DSS, watched helplessly as the security operatives attempted to relocate the IDPs.

He also wept profusely, pleading with the security agents to allow the victims, mainly children, remain in the camp, which had become a home to them.

Though Folorunsho refused to give details of the operation, he, however, said: “God knows we are here only to do his work by taking care of this displaced children. That was my calling.

“We do not have any security issue here and I pray that government allows these children remain because they are already in school. They see this place as home now, so it is going to affect their psyche if they are relocated.”

However, Vanguard learned from a security source that the decision to relocate the victims came from the Presidency.

It was learned that the Federal Government was planning to get a correct data of IDPs across the country and, therefore, planned to relocate all of them to Kano and Jigawa states.