Kasim Sumaina in Abuja
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) yesterday denied report of discrimination against Christians in the distribution of relief assistance in Adamawa State.
The spokesperson of NEMA, Sani Datti, while reacting to the report on some of media outlets where Christians from seven local government areas in the state affected by the insurgency were reported to have accused the agency of bias and discrimination in the rehabilitation of the North-east geo-political zone ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency, said there was nothing like that in their activities in the state.
Sani revealed that at no point does NEMA determine who gets what as it is the job of the community leader to work with state governments to ensure that all those that are affected get to benefit from the intervention.
According to him, the activities of NEMA centred around providing assistance to distressed persons and communities in the country, not minding if they are Christians or Muslims.
He hinted that “when NEMA engage on humanitarian activities and presentations of relief items, these are handed over to the state governments for distribution to the persons.”
Recall that Christians drawn from Gombi, Hong, Madagali, Michika, Maiha, Mubi North and Mubi South local government areas of the state had raised the allegations last Tuesday.
They had lamented the systemic discrimination against them by the federal government, particularly, the NEMA in the rehabilitation of victims affected by the Boko Haram terrorism.
According to them, all palliatives and interventions initiated by government through the Presidential Committee on North-East Initiative (PCNI), NEMA and the state government have tilted their interventions and humanitarian assistance in favour of Muslims to the outright neglect of the Christian communities in the state.
Sani however assured Nigerians that the agency would continue to work towards ensuring that no one is short-changed whenever donations are made.
