A leading Labour Party aspirant for the 2019 presidential elections, Okey Sam Mbonu, last week visited the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps in the country’s North-East as part of his community outreach to North-Central and North-East Nigeria.
Mbonu while at the IDP Camp donated substantial food and relief materials to the residents of the Camp. The Camp residents comprised of widows whose husbands were recently killed by Boko Haram fighters, and also by Cattle Herdsmen in North-Central Nigeria, and young children.
Mbonu stated that he was moved to visit the camp after receiving reports from his field staff about the extreme hardship the affected communities faced and continue to face in Nigeria. He observed that he was the first presidential aspirant to visit the IDP camps in North-East Nigeria, in-spite of the dangerous conditions of the region. Two suicide bombers attacked a nearby camp shortly after Mbonu’s visit and killed 6 persons.
Mbonu stated that he was disturbed by the government’s failure to see the plight of the affected population; he vowed that the insecurity that gave rise to the IDP Camps will be dealt summarily with under his presidency.
In her response, while accepting the goods, the Supervisor of the IDP Camp Hajia Liatu Ayuba said: “the camp residents were grateful that Mbonu had travelled from his far-away base to show his support to residents of the camp. Hajia Ayuba also said, “there are many Nigerians including politicians of immense wealth, including owners of mansions, private jets, and SUV’s with police escorts, who obviously do not care about their plight in the IDP camps, therefore they wished Mbonu well in all his endeavours within and outside Nigeria”.
Mbonu noted that the mere existence of these camps, and the horrendous conditions and dangers inherent at the camps, were sufficient to make the Nigerian government and its leaders lose sleep at night. He vowed that when he is elected President in 2019, that his government will permanently contain the dangerous security situation existing in Nigeria.
Mbonu is running under the platform of the Labour Party.
