Ita-Giwa threatens action over alleged diverted Bakassi IDPs’ relief materials

Ita-Giwa

•To petition NASS, UN, ECOWAS over case

A former presidential adviser on National Assembly Matters to Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, has vowed to explore all avenues possible to retrieve the alleged diverted federal relief materials for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) of Dayspring camp in Bakassi Local council of Cross River State.

She had a couple of weeks ago raised the alarm that the goods, sent by the National Commission for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons and received by the state emergency management agency (SEMA), were allegedly found in the residence of a top politician in Calabar, the state capital.

But at a briefing yesterday in Lagos, Ita-Giwa said over a month later, nothing concrete had happened, insisting that the materials must be returned to those they were meant for.

To this end, Ita-Giwa said she was petitioning the National Assembly on the issue, just as she vowed to take the case to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament and United Nations for alleged human rights violations if the request does not get a positive response.

The politician, popularly known as Mama Bakassi, frowned at the disposition of Governor Ben Ayade to the issue.According to her, the least she expected from the governor, who was far away in China when the incident reportedly occurred, was a probe into the matter.

“Recent events in Cross River have given me and well-meaning Nigerians cause for concern. As you might have heard, there has been a sustained and coordinated campaign to demonise my person and make rubbish of all my efforts towards alleviating the plight of my people of Bakassi,” she said.

“All these are happening because I was instrumental to uncovering a dastardly plot of diverting their materials I sourced from the national refugee commission for victims of a fire outbreak in Dayspring Island Bakassi by unscrupulous state officials,” she stated.Ita-Giwa disclosed that the House of Assembly had summoned her over the issue and promised to honour the invitation as a law-abiding citizen.