Borno State government says it is expending over N600 million monthly on the feeding of those displaced by the activities of insurgency in 20 local government areas of the state.

The state Deputy Governor, Zannah Mustapha, made this known while speaking to newsmen in Yola, Adamawa State, on Saturday.

Mr. Mustapha said there were about two million internally displaced persons in Maiduguri.

“We have of recent also evacuated about 43,000 IDPs of Borno indigene from Adamawa to Maiduguri,” he said.
He explained that the government had commenced free food programme for both the IDPs in camps and those staying with relatives in the state.

Mr. Mustapha, who solicited for Federal Government’s assistance, said the state government was expending almost all its monthly allocation on IDPs.

Mr. Mustapha said 90 per cent of the people could not cultivate their farmland due to insecurity, a development, he explained, posed a serious threat to food security in the state.

“We are not finding things easy at all,” he said.

The deputy governor, who was in Yola to celebrate Christmas with the IDPs from Askira/Uba and Gwoza Local Government Areas of Borno State, who are now taking refuge in Adamawa, said he was happy with the condition in the camps.

He urged the Federal Government to intensify effort in liberating the areas still under the control of Boko Haram, adding that 2015 general election particularly those for the Presidency and Governors would be inconclusive if those areas were not recovered for the people to vote.