NEDC reconstructs 3,000 buildings out of 4 million destroyed by insurgency in North East – Group
Chima Azubuike
No fewer than 3,000 buildings out of 4 million destroyed through the activities of insurgency in the North East region have been reconstructed by North East Development Commission (NEDC), says North East Youths and Elders Peoples Forum.
According to the National president of the group, Salihu Magaji, the NEDC has fulfilled more than expected by alleviating the sufferings of the people due to about 12 years insurgency witnessed by the region.
The group while commending the NEDC on Sunday, revealed that the intervention cuts across health care delivery, education, food and shelter, adding that alot more of persons whose means of livelihood were truncated due to security challenges are bouncing back.
Magaji said, “As a result of appointment of Hard Working Leader who is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of NEDC, Mohammed Goni Alkali when he assumed duty carefully studied the situation and came up with so many reliable plans in order to ameliorate the hardships being encountered by the citizens.
“Investigations by experts revealed that the stock of houses in the northeast states before the insurgency was about 4 million, out of which over 500,000 structures (houses and commercial premises) were destroyed or irreparably damaged, which Even before the insurgency, there was a Housing deficit in all the States of the Region. Therefore, the insurgency only further aggravated the situation. In all of this, Borno State being the epicentre of the crisis is worse affected with the largest number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).”
He revealed that sometimes in 2019, due to the confidence the president has in NEDC, he approved a special Presidential intervention in Borno State (SPIB) in order to reduce the desperate situation that displaced communities in the state had found themselves, “through the construction of 10,000 houses and the establishment of Technical and Vocational Skills Acquisition Centres for the IDPs amongst others, execution of the SPIB. it was resolved that the NEDC undertakes the construction of the first 1,000 houses and fully funded the equipping of the Technical and Vocational/Skills Centres around the State.
“Alkali constructed the first 1,000 Houses at Ngowom Village, Mafa Local Government of Borno State and handed over the Houses to the Governor of Borno State, Professor Baba Gana Umara Zullum.
“He delivered a townhall with all social amenities, these are all the efforts of the Commission to reflect on its mandate, and the decision to replicate same in the other five states of the region by the construction of 500 houses in each state.”