National Emergency Management Agency
Press Release
Electoral Violence: No Life was lost in Kano ....As the Police in Kano State disclosed that "no single death" was recorded during the crisis, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has continued to move relief materials to various internally displaced Peoples Camp (IDPCs)
The Commissioner of Police in Kano State, Alhaji Dan Azumi Doma told a Special Presidential Committee on the Plights of Displaced People over the recent violent protest after the Presidential election that there was “some properties were destroyed as well as some victims injured there was no single record of death from the recent incident in kano and no single corpse was deposited in the mortuary.”
The Leader of the Special Committee and and Director General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Muhammad Sani-Sidi while commending swift response of security agencies in controlling the situation told the displaced people that the team was undertaking on-the-spot assessment inspection as he assured them that the government would continue to protect, as well as provide them with basic need in the Internally Displaced Peoples Camps (IDPCs) pending the return to normalcy in the affected communities.
Sani-Sidi said: “President Goodluck Jonathan has directed that we should ensure you are adequately provided with the basic needs as relief materials are being transported to various locations to improve the condition and plights of innocent people. So far many more trucks are being despatched from our strategic warehouses to meet the demand.”
He added that “from the preliminary reports by response agencies, the crises were neither religious nor ethnic so we should be cautious of inputting sectional sentiments into this.
While calling on the need for peaceful co-existence among people of different backgrounds and political parties by embracing dialogue to resolve political issues, he said Nigeria as the most populous nation in Africa must give a good example of mutual tolerance and peaceful co-existence.
Over 10,000 people have been displaced in Kano, many of them seeking shelter in seven Internally Displaced People Camps (IDPCs) scattered in police stations and army barracks while more than 100 people had been arrested in the state in connection to the crisis.
NEMA has begun transportation of relief materials to various IDPCs in the North and in some southern states, including Anambra State where some panicky Nigerians run to a military barrack for safety over fears of reprisal attacks.
The team which comprises NEMA and other response agencies is still on the assessment tours of affected states.
Yushau A. Shuaib (Head of Press and Public Relations)
April 21, 2011