Some Nigerian youths living as refugees in an Internally Displaced Persons camps in Cameroon, have been arrested for drug related offences.
According to the National Emergency Management Agency, the culprits were specifically apprehended for using illicit drugs in the camps.
The Director-General of NEMA, Mr. Sani Sidi, disclosed this while delivering 1,460 bags of assorted food items on behalf of the Federal Government for the feeding of about 80,709 Nigerian refugees, mostly from Borno State, in the Republic of Cameroon.
In a statement issued on Sunday by the agency’s Head of Media and Public Relations, Mr. Sani Datti, the NEMA boss appealed to youths in the camps to desist from using drugs and urged them to always be of good character and be good ambassadors of their country.
“Some youths in the camp were recently arrested for drug use,” the statement noted.
According to the agency, the affected Nigerian refugees in the camps were displaced by Boko Haram insurgents and were taking shelter in Minawao and other locations in the far north region of Cameroon.
Sidi, who was represented by the agency’s Director of Search and Rescue, Air Commodore SBB Muhammad, handed over the food items to officials of Cameroon for onward presentation to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, which has been managing the camp.
He assured the refugees that the Nigerian government has not forgotten them and was doing everything possible to evacuate them back to their respective states.
Sidi thanked the government of Cameroon, international NGOs and UNHCR on behalf of the Federal Government for hosting and providing the refugees with protection.
The statement outlined items delivered to camps in Cameroon to include 650 bags of rice, 300 bags of guinea corn, 200 bags of millet, 150 bags of beans, 10 bags of groundnut, 50 bags of flour, 50 bags of sugar and 50 bags of salt.
Others include 100 cartons of tinned tomato, 50 cartons of maggi cubes, 150 cartons of spaghetti, 150 cartons of bath soap and 50 cartons of vegetable oil.
