By Ndahi Marama, Maiduguri

The National Emergency Management Agency has flagged off a town hall meeting and five(5) days pilot sensitization program on Grassroot Emergency Preparedness and Awareness Drive (NEMA- GEPAD) in some communities to address the increasing cases of drugs abuse, prostitution, security threats and other social vices in Borno state.

This was disclosed by the North East Zonal Coordinator of the Agency, Abdullahi Sirajo during a town hall meeting with displaced communities of Mafa and Dikwa local government areas who are taking refuge at Muna Elbadawy Camp in Maiduguri.

Represented by the North East Acting Head of Operations, Manir Gidado, he said, many people, especially those at the grassroots thought that NEMA’s mandate is just to carry out emergency relief responses, not knowing that the agency is also mandated to mitigate or sensitive communities on disaster Preparedness and management based on the global paradigm shift.

Gidado noted that, part of the NEMA-GEPAD plan is to organize a town hall meeting with stakeholders including leaders of Market Association’s, Community leaders, women/youth groups, security leaders, Camp officials among others to sensitive them on how to reduce risks concerning natural and man-made disasters.

His words: “We have been assigned to carry out this very important sensitization program. Yesterday (Tuesday) we were at Monday Market Maiduguri, where we interacted with the leaders, traders and marketers, and we discussed on the lessons learnt during and after the fire incident which consumed goods worth billions of naira. Now that the market have been reconstructed, we engaged them on how to prevent any fire disaster withing the market.

” Today we are here in Muna IDPs camp which hosted over 9,400 households and about 48,000 displaced persons from Mafa and Dikwa local government areas. We held a town hall meeting where we engaged them on prevailing hazards, why are they still in camp after spending over 10 years, the negative impact of the displacement, the role of Civilian Joint Tasks Force (CJTF) in ensuring peace and security in the camp.

“Our engagement was very fruitful as we discussed on how to minimise the increase of drugs abuse and intakes among youths, prostitution, security threats and many other related issues.

“I am happy to inform you that in the course of our deliberations, many strategic measures were adopted towards addressing all the social vices while in camps. We also assured them of NEMA’s continuous support at all times in order to make them comfortable and readily prepared to go back to their ancestral homes in dignity”.

“By tomorrow (Thursday), we are going to engage with key stakeholders in food security sector, where the state and federal government agencies would be involved on how to ensure people, especially the vulnerable ones have three square meals per day without hindrance”. Gidado stated.

In a vote of thanks on behalf of the IDPs, the Chairman of Muna Camp, Mallam Abatcha Mustapha appreciated NEMA for its humanitarian assistance it has been rendering to displaced people.

He noted that, the support rendered by NEMA and other humanitarian partners have complemented efforts of Borno State Government under the leadership of Governor Babagana Zulum, even as he called for more durable and sustainable solutions to the plight of IDPs not only in Borno, but to other victims who have lost their means of livelihoods due to insecurity and other disasters.