The Senate has directed its Committee on Appropriation to allocate N10 billion from the Service Wide Vote for the relocation and resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons from Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States.

This followed the adoption of a five-prayer motion moved on Tuesday by the Senate Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume, and co-sponsored by seven other senators.

The Senate, as part of its resolution, also urged the Victims Support Fund to allocate a reasonable amount for immediate relocation and resettlement of IDPs.

It also urged the Federal Government to release grains from the Strategic Grain Reserve to the affected states.

The National Emergency Management Agency and the Refugee Commission were urged to make special arrangements for repatriation and resettlement of Nigerian refugees in Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

A Letter of Appreciation would also be written by the relevant committee of the Senate to the Embassies of the countries where Nigerian refugees were hosted.

Ndume, in moving the motion, noted that the IDPs had lost everything they owned to the insurgency.

He said most of the residents ran to neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon and were now set to return home.

Ndume added that most of them had no source of livelihood, no income and no property to return to, hence the need for interim financial and material support for them.

He said many of those who had returned were dying of hunger as there was no food and the environment was lacking good sanitation.

He said: “For the IDPs to return home, they need immediate and interim financial and material assistance in terms of cash and food relief to start their lives all over.

“This requires intervention before the North East Development Commission, Save the School Initiative or any other initiative or intervention can be accessed.”

While adopting the motion, the Senate, however, urged that the implementation should be monitored to ensure that the money was not embezzled, only for fresh corruption cases to begin again.

The senators agreed that the intervention was needed to kick start economic activities in the region as the final stage of winning the war against insurgency.