The House of Representatives Committee on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Refugees and North-East Initiatives has condemned the use of teargas on harmless protesting IDPs in Borno.

The committee condemned the act on Friday in a statement personally signed by its Chairman, Rep Sani Zoro, in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the IDPs had, on Tuesday, held a peaceful protest to show their grievances over continuous food deprivation faced at Teachers’ Village Camp, Maiduguri.

The lawmakers said it was unfortunate that the same IDPs who had been deprived of food and other items needed for their survival were brutally suppressed for crying out against the injustice they face daily.

They, however, urged the Federal Government to urgently supply needed items to the IDPs without further delay and punish the perpetrators and beneficiaries of stolen food and other items belonging to the displaced persons.

According to them, the committee is willing and ready to share vital information capable of fishing out the culprits, no matter how highly placed.

“The committee wishes to express sadness over Tuesday’s protest by IDPs at Teachers Village camp in Maiduguri, and the needless resort to the use of teargas to disperse them by the police.

“It is on record that the authorities concerned have continued to deprive the starving and desperate IDPs of food and non-food items whose every day complaints, pleas, and outcries only fell on the deaf ears of insensitive officials charged with their care.

“Sadly, massive consignments of these food and non-food items procured with state resources are now either at varying stages of expiration, or are being shared (in the open) to highly-placed politicians for use as campaign tools in the countdown to our general election.

“The Committee urges the federal government to act as a matter of supreme urgency by ensuring immediate supply of the desperately needed items without further delay and punish the perpetrators and beneficiaries of the inhumane crime.

“As part of its oversight functions, the committee is willing and ready to share vital information capable of fishing out the culprits no matter how highly placed,” they said.