The Chairman, National Logistics Committee, Assistant Comptroller-General, Mr Sanusi Umar, has donated 11,517 bags of rice to alleviate the plight of the victims of Borno insurgency.

Umar made the donation at the handing over ceremony of the second phase of the Federal Government assistance on Thursday in Maiduguri, Borno.

He promised that in the next three weeks the committee would visit the state with bumper harvest of relief materials to the IDPs.

“On behalf of the committee, I will be handing over a total of 11,517 bags of 50kg of rice to alleviate the plight of the victims of insurgency in the affected local government areas of the state.

“We hope that officers in the Theatre will be on hand to work with the existing structure of the government and local organising committee to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of these items to the targeted beneficiaries.

“This time around we have surplus rice. It is only rice that we brought to Borno state.

“These are rice that were seized by Customs and condemned in the court of law and forfeited to the government.

“When coming next, we will come not only with rice but with vegetable oil, second hands clothing, spaghetti and any other items that we feel should be of use by the IDPs,” Umar said.

The chairman commended the Operation Lafiya Dole in the war against insurgency.

He said that though the IDP camps were still being operated because of the fluid nature of asymmetric war on insurgency, commended the efforts of the Army.

“We are happy that increasing number of the IDPs are willing to return to territories that have been liberated during the Theatre Operations.

“We are however not unmindful of the fact that peace is not sustainable when there is hunger in the land,’’ Umar said.

According to him, the intervention of the committee in providing the much needed relief materials was a crucial contribution to the overall objective of bringing lasting peace in the Northeast region.

Receiving the items, Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno said that there were more than one million IDPs in the host communities and 258,000 IDPs in the outskirts of Maiduguri.

Shettima assured the committee that the state would be equitable, fair and transparent in distributing the donated relief materials to the affected victims.

He called for an increase in the next Federal Government intervention.

“Please take note, the expiring date of this rice is 2018, so nobody should accuse the customs of dumping expired food products on the IDPs.

“This food items are good for human consumption and has been certified by NAFDAC.

“No efforts or contribution will be neglected, all support will be appreciated so we welcome more support,” Shemitta said.

The governor also commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his unrelenting support to the people of the state.