CSO Charged S/South Governors On IDPs Rights Protection Law

A civil society organization, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), has charged South South Governors to make laws that will protect the rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living in their states.

The Executive Director of CISLAC , Auwal Ibrahim Musa who made the call during a South South media roundtable dialogue in Calabar recently said that the IDPs deserve special protection from government because of the peculiarity of their situation.

Musa said that development of phenomenon of returnee migrant in the region with particular focus in Cross River State has no doubt become a source of concern to humanitarian actors operating in the region.

CISLAC, an organization that receives support from embassy of the Netherland in Nigeria is noted for fighting for the rights and privileges of persons who are internally displace either by war or natural calamity.

CISLAC’s Executive Director said that though the organization is not aware of any existing law in the region that makes it possible for persons concern to be adequately catered for, a situation where the governors wait until crises erupt in the region before they begin to run helter-skelter looking for where to lay their hands to salvage the situation was not a welcome development.

He called on the leadership of the various state houses of assemblies in the region to come with a law if there was none in their states to ensure that people internally displaced are taken care of before they constitute a problem to the society.

He said, “Agreed that bags of rice, cartons of indomies, kilo of sugar, rolls of toilet tissues were at regular intervals distributed to the IDPs, what happens after the receipt of these items, when the persons concerned are allowed to be on their own. Are those items sustainable? No! The items cannot sustain them and their families".

He urged the South South governor not to wait until there is outbreak of IDPs before they begin to look for “where to scratch” to solve the problem suggesting for workability of a solution before problem crops up.

“While the state still play host to internally displaced persons(IDPs) that emanated from the ruling of the International Court of Justice(ICJ) which ceded the Bakassi region to Cameroun, other conflict and environmental induced displacement cases have further exacerbated the need for a multi-pronged approach for protection and assistance to persons of concern in the region”. CISLAC executive director stressed.

 The CSO called for the collaboration of stakeholders to generate a policy frame work that can help humanitarian actors in the region provide assistance to the IDPs.