Nathan Tamarapreye, Yenagao
Mr Abraham Ogbodo, Chairman, Delta Management Committee for the Ewu-Okuama Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp says the camp is fully ready to receive displaced persons.
Ogbodo, flanked by other members of the committee disclosed this on Wednesday in Ewu Community, Ughelli South Local Government Area of the state.
The former Editor of the Guardian Newspaper appealed to the Okuama people of Ughelli South to embrace the government initiative and come to the camp while assuring them of adequate security.
Fielding questions from newsmen, Ogbodo said that the camp was currently unofficially opened assuring that soonest, the state governor, Sheriff Oborevwori would officially flag it off.
He appealed to the displaced Okuama people to give the state government and the Ewu Community the benefits of the doubt and come forth to stay.
However, there are insinuations from some quarters that Okuama people were unwilling to come to the camp situated in the Ewu Community.
Recall that the residents of Okuama had vacated their native home following the gruesome murder of 17 soldiers on March 14, 2024 which consequently led to the military taking siege in the community.
Following the development, the Delta government decided to open an IDP camp for the displaced people at Ewu.
The military had since pulled out of the troubled Okuama Community after about 55 days of siege.
Ogbodo told newsmen that the camp had the spare capacity to accommodate 1, 500 persons adding that the committee was expecting about 1,000 persons.
“People had expected that after the inauguration of the committee, the camp would have taken off immediately. We needed to prepare a camp and, that is, what we have been doing in the past three weeks.
“What you are seeing here is the first step to a longer-term solution. This committee was set up when the people were still in the bush.
“The mandate of the committee was to ensure that they brought the people from the forest and stay in a habitable place.
“While we look for the more substantive issue of bringing back the community that had been completely destroyed, that is the intention of the government.
“If the government in its wisdom has said this is what we are going to provide in the short term and in the long term, we are going to do everything.
“I think what the government has done is enough for now. We appeal to the Okuama people to give the government and the Ewu Community the benefit of the doubt.
“For the government to do what it needs to do, the people have to be here while the government intervene in the bigger issue of actually returning them to the baseline condition,” he said.
The committee chairman said that the committee would use both conventional and non-conventional approaches to attract people to the camp.
He added that help should be offered in such a way that the person offering it was not endangered.
While assuring the people of adequate safety, Ogbodo said that there was nowhere in the world that the person who needed help could dictate how he should be helped.
He said that camp operation was usually a “work in progress” stressing that the committee would not be overwhelmed by the numbers.
“We can hardly be overwhelmed by the numbers that will come. We have done the statistics and at most, they will not be more than 1,000 persons.
“This place is very expansive; we will bring up new structures at a very high speed to ensure we are not inundated. This government is very proactive and means very well,” he said.
Ogbodo said that the committee would profile the people to ensure only the right individuals were in the camp.
He, however, said that security operatives comprising the police, civil defence and local vigilantes were adequately on ground to provide the needed security in the camp.