Refugee commission: Number of IDPs increased in past year by one million

The National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) says the humanitarian crisis in the country has displaced more than one million Nigerians within the past year.

Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, the federal commissioner for the NCFRMI, said this on Monday, when she appeared before the house of representatives committee on internally displaced persons (IDPs).

According to Sulaiman-Ibrahim, over 500,000 Nigerians are to be repatriated from neighbouring countries.

“Due to the current unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Nigeria and the alarming growth rate of displacement, the number of IDPs has increased in the past one year by about one million, causing the number of displaced persons in Nigeria to rise to a frightening three million,” she said.

“Nigeria is also a host to about 73,000 refugees from 23 countries, with over 500,000 Nigerians awaiting repatriation from Chad, Cameroon, Cameroon, Libya and other countries.”

Sulaiman-Ibrahim also said the commission is working on constructing more resettlement centres in Borno, Edo, Katsina and Kano to accommodate the displaced persons.

According to her, the proposed N1.7 billion for personnel and N4.5 billion for capital component in the 2022 budget is inadequate for the commission.

Darlington Nwokocha, a lawmaker from Abia, said detailed information on the displaced persons should be provided to the committee so that needed adjustments can be made to the budget.

“I think it is important that you have presented the indices of this particular information because we need to verify, “he said.

“We would like to have the numbers of these people, the location and things alike because that would give us the strength and ability to track their information to ensure it is properly included cost wise in this budget.”