By Marlikberry,

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in some of the camps in the country have turned to begging and prostitution, while some have resorted to drug abuse as a means of survival, LEADERSHIP investigations revealed.

The displaced persons attributed the social vices such as begging, prostitution and drug abuse in the camps to hunger, starvation and joblessness, saying except a vast emergency aid programme is launched to ameliorate the situation, matters would out of hand.

Deprived of their means of subsistence at home and confronted with abject poverty in the camps, some of the IDPs who have been attending schools said they may not sit for the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) as a result of paucity of funds.

In Borno state, Fadimatu Mohammed, an IDP taking refuge at the Bakassi camp with a population of over 40,000, said due to hunger and starvation arising from poor feeding in the camps, some of the IDPs, especially boys and girls have resorted to street begging, prostitution and drugs abuse.

Fadimatu, a mother of five, said the unfortunate thing they are witnessing in the camp is that instead of the various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in the camps to engage some of the youths as ad hoc staff, they would rather bring in people from outside.

She added that federal and state governments’ empowerment programmes such as N-Power are not extended to the IDPs camps despite the fact that some youths in the camps are graduates with degrees, diplomas and NCE certificates, who fled their homes as a result of Boko Haram and bandits’ attack.