The federal government has concluded plans to build resettlement cities for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees in Borno, Zamfara, Katsina and Edo states. The Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugee Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), Basheer Mohammed, who disclosed this in an interview with journalists, said the cities are expected to resettle and accommodate as many displaced persons in the country as possible.

The resettlement cities which are to be built in the zones most affected by Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, as well as herdsmen and farmers clashes in the country are designated to have worship centers, skill acquisitions centers, police stations, water treatment, among other features.

Mohammed who noted that the Commission is shifting focus from just providing food to the IDPs said in each of the selected states, there will be a design of 600 houses with two bedroom flats to accommodate as many households as possible.

“If we look back in the last ten years when the first IDP camp was established in Borno state it has less than 5000 people but as I speak to you today in Nigeria, we have over 2.5 million displaced persons. We also have what we recognised as official over 290 IDP camps spread across the country but we do have unofficial camps which are over thousands.

“So the way out is how do we exit these camps and save these people? So, we came up with two strategies, one is resettlement cities to look at where we have a high number of IDPs. We contacted Zamfara, Katsina, Edo, and Borno, what we did was to approach these governors and request for land allocation.”