By Gbenga Akingbule
Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum, on Monday, urged the newly Inaugurated Committee on Flood Disaster Relief Disbursement to ensure transparent utilisation of the over N14 billion donations to victims of the flood disaster that ravaged parts of the state.
Gatekeepers News reports that Zulum also directed the committee not to spend monies from the donations as their allowances pointing out that state government will make provision for the allowances of all members.
Prof Zulum added that apart from its readiness to fix damaged infrastructure, the state government will also add its donation to the basket fund which initially stood at over 13 billion when the committee was Inaugurated but rose to over N14 billion with the donation of N1billion from Gen. TY Danjuma who was represented by his daughter, Gloria Danjuma.
This was made known when Governor Zulum inaugurated the committee led by
Engr. Baba Bukar Gujubawu, Special Adviser Monitoring/Evaluation and Prof. Ibrahim Umara of the University of Maiduguri as Co-Chairman at a brief ceremony held at the council chambers of Government House. Maiduguri, the state capital.
To ensure transparency and accountability according to Governor Zulum, the membership of the committee includes a representative of United Nations Organisations, the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission ( ICPC), the Police, the Army, the Department Of State Service ( DSS) Nigeria Security And Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC ) National Emergency Management Agency ( NEMA) amongst others.
“To the members of the committee, I urge you to approach this task with diligence and integrity. We must be accountable for every resource entrusted to us. Transparency in our operations will be paramount; we must ensure that every naira allocated for relief is used effectively and reaches those who are suffering,” Prof Zulum said.
The governor who gave the committee one month within which to round up its activities also gave the terms of reference which include, Verification of all the beneficiaries submitted to identify the actual victims, Judicious disbursement of funds to the affected persons and Advise the government on the policy and practice regarding the disbursement from the flood disaster.
Prof Zulum revealed that out the the pledges so far made, the sum of ” 4. 441, 494. 9O2.81 ” have been redeemed.
The governor therefore commended all those who contributed to support Borno Flood Victims saying ” I want to take this moment to appreciate the efforts of individual citizens and organizations who have already stepped up to provide support.”.
The Chairman of the Committee, Engr. Baba Bukar Gujubawu said they’re set to hit the group running and ensure they put smiles on the faces of victims who were affected by the devastating flood.
Gujubawu said a sub-committee has already begun an assessment of affected areas to get the required data that will assist the committee in discharging its assignment.
” This task is a very difficult one but I must say that we’ve already swung into action and with the selection of people with integrity in this committee, we will succeed and deliver within the time frame,” Gujubawu said.
Earlier the UN organisations made pronouncements targeted at supporting households that were affected by the flooding.
UNHCR, ” We’re providing 15000 Sleeping Mats, 15000 Mosquito Nets, 10750 Blankets and cash assistance for the category of minimal destruction, N100, per household and we will cover 4,600 households.”
WFP, “We have confirmed that 40,000 households will be assisted with 25kg each of Rice and 10kg of nutritious Beans. For the funds in cash for 80,000 households, we’re still waiting for confirmation.”
UNICEF, “We’re going to rehabilitate the cold store that was damaged, we’ve already replaced the 1.1 million routine immunisation vaccines. In terms of return areas, we’re available to provide water treatments to 300,,000 people with chlorine for the groundwater.”
UNDP, “We’ve initial relief of 10,000 USD. We also have 100,000 USD which will be for cash distribution and will be available by Thursday this week
UNOCHA, “We’re in the process of mobilising resources.”
UN Women, “We’re going to support WFP in giving women cooking utensils and fuel. We’re targeting for a start, 33,000 households. We’re still expecting more and we will continue to review that .”
