he Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has been directed by President Muhammudu Buhari to transfer relief items in its warehouses to designated officials for distribution to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
Its Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr. Wale Adeniyi, said this in an interview in Abuja yesterday.
Following the presidential directive, the comptroller general has set up a national committee to coordinate and manage the movement and transfer of relief items to the IDPs.
Adeniyi said the relief items in government warehouses for distribution to the IDPs included goods that were forfeited to the Federal Government.
“It is important to stress that these items are only those that have been condemned properly in the competent court of law and have been forfeited to the Federal Government.
“They include rice, vegetable oil, spaghetti and essential items, such as soap, clothes, mosquito nets, beddings and others,’’ he said.
The Customs PRO said members were drawn from Customs Service, Army, Air Force, Police, Immigration Service and EFCC.
According to him, the Customs boss also included some NGOs, civil society organisations and the media to give the committee a measure of transparency and credibility.
Adeniyi added that Customs had determined the locations of the IDP camps.
He said the service had thought that IDPs camps were only in Borno and Adamawa states, but discovered that there were over 20 of such camps.
However, he noted that the distribution of relief items to the IDPs would slightly be different from the previous ones the service had done.
“This time around, our targets are not the IDPs camps; our targets are the IDPs themselves who are in these camps,” he said.
He added that the service would go beyond the IDPs camps to communities and villages where Nigerians had been displaced.
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