NEWS
“Restoring displaced Nigerians in Northeast is an urgent assignment”- Osinbajo
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has stated at the first meeting of the committee at the Presidential Villa, Abuja that he will treat the safe return of Nigerians displaced by the insurgency in the North-East from Cameroon, Niger and Chad with urgency.
Committee was inaugurated by President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on February 2, 2022, with the Vice President as Chairman and Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State as Vice Chairman.
In the statement signed on Monday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, the Vice President encouraged members to carry take up their duties as matter of emergency, emphasizing that the president wanted a committee with wide representation in order to be inclusive, and to be able to deliver, taking to account all the issues.
The statement is titled ‘Restoring displaced Nigerians in Northeast is an urgent assignment- Osinbajo.’
The committee was instructed to deal “with this task as an emergency. We simply don’t have the time to get into too much bureaucracy so that we are able to deliver on all of the issues.”
He noted that while the committee will work with existing frameworks in the management of the issues, ongoing efforts to facilitate the return of displaced persons to their communities must continue without interruption.
He stated that,
“We should immediately do whatever it takes to commence the process of repatriating our people back home. Already there are several initiatives.
“We need to deal with all of that working as quickly as possible to achieve the terms of reference and of course, ensure that all other initiatives continue to run in the way that they are designed to run.”
The vice president then affirmed that governments at both Federal and State levels will work with other stakeholders to ensure a hitch-free repatriation exercise, noting that “there is no reason why we cannot return our citizens to their homes.”
The vice president then directed the secretariat to commence work on constituting three technical working groups on the work plan, repatriation exercise and rehabilitation of repentant Boko Haram combatants.
The committee will meet later to assess progress.
The meeting presided over by the vice president had in attendance, Prof. Babagana Zulum; his counterpart from Gombe State, Muhammad Yahaya; the Deputy Governor of Yobe State, Idi Gubana; and Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, members of the Federal Executive Council, among others.
Other members of the committee present at Monday’s meeting included the Ministers of Justice, Abubakar Malami; Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq; Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (retd) and National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (retd.).
Others included the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor; Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba; Director-General, State Security Service, Yusuf Bichi; Chief of Defence Intelligence Agency, Major General Samuel Adebayo; and the representative of the Director-General, National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Abubakar.
