The Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya
Aisha Alhassan, collapsed monday at the Internally Displaced Persons’
(IDPs) camp in Fufore Local Government Area of Adamawa State while
addressing vulnerable IDP women inside a store in the camp.
Alhassan, who was in crutches when she
arrived the camp, and after addressing the IDPs, entered the store to
discuss with some of the said vulnerable women sequel to an allegation
by some foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on violation of
some girls and women at the IDPs’ camps in the North-east.
While discussing with the women, she
collapsed, but was quickly assisted to a chair and given a bottle of
Coke to drink, which revived her.
According to some of her aides, she had been diagnosed with low sugar, a problem that creates serious weakness of the body.
But despite her state of health, she
managed to explain to journalists at the camp that her fact-finding
mission to Yobe, Borno and Adamawa States tend to confirm the foreign
NGOs’ allegation.
The minister had earlier said that she
was at the camp to give a message from President Muhammadu Buhari to the
displaced persons, who wanted them to cheer up despite the hardship
because everything was being done to ensure that they go back to their
homes.
She told the IDPs that the president was
touched by their suffering and that was why he sent her to come and
donate relief materials and felicitate with them.
Alhassan also paid a courtesy visit to
the Governor of Adamawa State, Alhaji Muhammadu Bindow, and told him
that her visit to the IDPs was to investigate allegations of violation
of girls and women and the compound issues of orphans and the
vulnerable.
She used the occasion to remind the
governor of calls by various women groups on the need to return the
women development centre, which was given to the Court of Appeal for its
use.
The state Commissioner for Information,
Mr. Ahmad Sajoh, in his remarks, told the minister and her staff that
the governor celebrated the last Ed-el-Kabir with the IDPs at the
Malkohi camp.
According to Sajoh, the governor and his cabinet, including some All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwarts ate and danced with the displaced persons.
According to Sajoh, the governor and his cabinet, including some All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwarts ate and danced with the displaced persons.
In his brief remarks, Bindow stressed
the need for peaceful co-existence, adding: “Without peace, no one would
readily do anything.”
The Deputy Governor, Mr. Martins Babale,
in a vote of thanks, observed that keeping the IDPs was still a problem
because of the state of the economy.
According to him, the state was still expecting about 56,000 displaced persons from Cameroun.
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