By Peter Duru, Makurdi

The Victims Support Fund, VSF, has donated food items to 1,000 households at the Okpute Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camp in Oju Local Government Area, LGA, of Benue state displaced during their communal crisis with neighbouring Bonta community in Konshisha LGA.

The humanitarian organizations also donated an ambulance, medical equipment and drugs to the Primary Healthcare Centre Oju, for use by the IDPs and people of the area.

The Chairperson, VSF Benue State Emergency Support Programme, Mrs. Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji who led the mission to the community explained that intervention was targeting 6,000 households in the state.

She said “this programme is going to be on for a couple of months; we started in May and we are targeting a minimum of 6,000 households in Benue State who are receiving food and medical materials. This will reach at least hundreds or thousands of different families across the most vulnerable communities and LGAs.

“I earlier announced that we are donating shelters to Ortese IDPs camp and we are launching economic empowerment programme as part of this project so that we are able to give most of those people that we have been giving food items and supporting, some economic grants to help them restart their lives, have some form of businesses to be able to sustain their families after this project.

“We are also going to kick off the complete rehabilitation and solar powered automation of the Naka waterworks in Gwer West LGA to check cases of outbreak of water borne disease in that area.

“We are hoping that by the middle of October, we should be able to officially have the Governor come and commission it. We will provide accommodation for the facility managers; we are working strategically with the Benue State Water Board to implement that project. It is definitely a project that our Chairman, General TY Danjuma is proud of, given that he is a detribalised Nigerian Philanthropist himself.”

Mrs. Akerele-Ogunsiji disclosed that the Okpute community would also get a borehole to check the scarcity of portable water in the community.

Lamenting the consequences of the crisis in the area, she said, “there have been killings on this road at different times and that has really discouraged a lot of people and forced them to desert their homelands and they try to seek refuge in other communities.

“So, we are hoping that by the time we are able to implement this Comprehensive Emergency Support Programme, a lot of people that deserted this community will be able to return and some kind of normalcy will be reinstated within the communities.”

Earlier, VSF State Programme Coordinator, Mrs. Mndepawe Jonah who listed the food items distributed to include bags of rice, maize, millet, soya beans palm oil and vegetable oil, salt, sugar and seasoning as well as packs of special formula for malnutrition children who had been profiled by the organisations.