Governor Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe State says over N20billion is needed for the reconstruction of damaged structures and resettlement of about 3,000 Internally Displaced Persons in the state.
The governor made this known while fielding questions from State House correspondents after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday.
Geidam said that he briefed the President on the state of the IDPs in Yobe and how best to resettle them, adding that all the IDPs except the 3,000 left had since returned to their respective homes.
Geidam said: “As I’m talking to you now, we have about 3,000 (Internally Displaced persons) in our camps.
“All of them, except these 3000, have returned to their homes that is why I am here to advise Mr President on how best these people should be resettled.
“Because they need a kind of rehabilitation of their destroyed homes by Boko Haram terrorists.
“Some need outright reconstruction of their homes, especially those which were completely destroyed by the Boko Haram terrorists.
“So, I came here to give him first-hand information of things, since we are there on ground.
“I have briefed him on how much we were able to do to the returnees.”
Geidam, who expressed satisfaction over the President’s responses, expressed delight that relative peace had been restored in the state.
He said that the two local government areas earlier occupied by the Boko Haram sect in the state had since been liberated months ago and normalcy restored in the affected areas.
He also said: “We have gotten relative peace. People are going about their normal lives and businesses, no threat to security of lives and property in any part of Yobe.
“We do not have any threats of Boko Haram anywhere in Yobe as I speak with you, right now.”