Reps ask FG to provide details of 73,000 foreign refugees

The House of Representatives on Monday asked the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRI) to furnish it with details of the about 73,000 refugees from 23 countries being hosted by Nigeria.

This is just as the Federal Commissioner in charge of NCFRI, Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim said the number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have increased in the past year by about one million, causing the number of displaced persons in Nigeria to rise to a frightening figure of about three million.

The lawmakers and NCFRI boss spoke at the 2021 budget performance appraisal and defence of the proposals for 2022 fiscal year of the Commission at the National Assembly in Abuja.

Suleiman-Ibrahim had in her presentation said: “Nigeria is also hosting to about 73,000 refugees from 23 countries, with over 500,000 Nigerians awaiting repatriation from Chad, Niger, Cameroon, Mali, Libya and other countries”.

According to her, the unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Nigeria and the alarming growth rate of displacement was responsible for the astronomical rise in the number of internally displaced persons in the country.

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The NCFRI Commissioner said the Commission is proposing to spend N5.7 billion for the 2022 fiscal year, comprising N4.5 billion for capital and N1.182 billion for recurrent expenditures.

She said: “The proposed 2022 budget of the Commission was put together with the aim of meeting the growing needs of all persons of concern as well as to address the protracted nature of displacement in Nigeria caused by both man-made disasters in the form of the persistent threat of insecurity, violence, insurgency, banditry/kidnapping and ethno-religious crisis as well as natural disasters brought about by climate change, famine and the outbreak of the COlD-19 pandemic”.

But in his intervention, a member of the Committee, Darlington Nwokocha said there was the need for the Commission to provide details of the refugees and the countries they are from to the parliament.

Nwokocha also asked the agency to provide more details about the proposed capital projects of the commission for 2022, saying the proposals were vague for proper accountability.

Muhammed Jega, chairman of the Committee, in his opening remark, said the lawmakers were poised to collaborate with the executive arm of government to design a budget that will meet the expectations of Nigerians.

“As the Committee on which the Nigerian people place their trust, we are aware that the annual budget affects the life of every Nigerian both individually and collectively. We, therefore, owe them a duty to do the needful and responsibility expected of us”, Jega said.