Group Flays UNDP Over ‘Selective’ Assistance In The North

John Musa

The Middlebelt Youth Forum has accused the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) over what it describes as “selective assistance” to states that suffer a humanitarian crisis in the Northern region.

 

While briefing journalists on Tuesday in Lafia (the Nassarawa state capital), the spokesman of the group Dr. Nanka Peters said that the UNDP has done nothing in the states of Benue, Plateau, Nassarawa, Taraba, and Southern Kaduna where the number of humanitarian crises has doubled more than cited cases in Borno state.

He said that the destruction and killings carried out in Benue, Plateau and southern Kaduna alone by terrorists posing as armed herdsmen this year deserved the attention of UNDP as a priority case. He further expressed shock that the anticipated assistance was not forthcoming.

 

“We are surprised by the attitude of the management of UNDP in Nigeria, it is like the organization is now an extension of the All Progressive Congress (APC) political party in Nigeria, a political party known for its discrimination. Go to Benue, 1.6 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) sleep without food or shelter and the federal government doesn’t seem to care because the religion of the victims is not Islam. We expected the UNDP to mostly focus on those states neglected by the federal government as a matter of priority and not simply compete with the government in Borno state,” he said.

Peters Who called on the leadership of UNDP in New York to call to order those heading the organization in Nigeria, pointed out that the aim of the organization was already defeated in Nigeria with the bias and inhumane treatment of victims especially those from the Middle-belt region.

 

“Every week people are killed and houses burnt in Benue and Southern Kaduna but the UNDP does not consider these states in its priority scheme of assistance,” he stated.

Peters opined that with the recent bias in operations of the UNDP and other International Organizations in the Northern region it should simply rename itself “the APC ruling party of  Nigeria”.