I wept when security operatives attempted to relocate IDPs from Edo –Pastor Folorunsho  0

BY OUR REPORTER ON AUGUST 15, 2015 NATIONAL

… Oshiomhole allays fear of relocation

The founder of International Christian Centre For Missions (ICC), Pastor Solomon Folorunsho, is deeply traumatized, following a visit to the centre last Saturday by a combined team of operatives of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSC­DC), police and Department of State Security Services (DSS).

The centre, tucked away in a forest in Uhogua com­munity in Ovia North-East Local Government Area of Edo State, was established in 1991 and in 1992. An NGO was added to it as home for the needy to take care of orphans, vulnerable children and children from broken homes. The NGO, according to Pastor Folorunsho, was registered with the Edo State Government in 2008 and then with the Cor­porate Affairs Commission (CAC) in 2013.

Initially, the centre had a population of about 400 needy children, but with the security challenge in the North-East­ern part of the country, occasioned by the Boko Haram insurgents, about 900 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), mostly children and women said to be rescued from the country and neighbouring countries, were sent to the cen­tre through the collaborative work between the centre and some pastors in the North-East.

Indeed, not many people were aware of the ex­istence of the centre until a few months ago when the media got wind of it and exposed it. Since then, individuals and groups from different parts of the country and even foreigners started visiting to make donations and give assistance in other forms, including providing medical services for the populace at the centre. But last Saturday, the peace of the centre was disrupted when a team of security officials arrived with over 40 buses with a mission to evacuate the Boko Haram IDPs to Kano and Jigawa states.This led to a protest by the IDPs who resisted the relocation move by the Federal Govern­ment. “Let them help those that are still suffering, those hiding in the mountains. We that have been rescued should be left here. They should bring the help to us here,” one of the victims said.

“They (security team) did not give me prior notice of their coming. When they came, they said that they were sent from the Presidency to come and evacuate the children to the North and I asked them why? And they said it is because of the information available to the Ggovernment, and I told them okay, why don’t you give me sometime so that I can prepare the children.

Source: The Sun