From Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri

BORNO State Govern­ment and the Victim Support Fund (VSF) in the North East states have earmarked N500 million for rebuilding of Borno central town of Dikwa destroyed by Boko Haram.

Governor Kashim Shettima spoke while receiving the building materials worth N200 million from the VSF and additional donation of N50 million at Dikwa, headquarters of Dikwa Local Government at the weekend. He said his administration would equally inject an­other N250 million for the reconstruction of the town seized by Boko Haram in 2014.

“Borno State Govern­ment will be willing to inject additional N250 million through its road maintenance agency for the reconstruction of in­frastructure especially roads and buildings in Dikwa,” the governor announced when he flagged off reconstruc­tion of the town week­end. He said the money will be used in recon­structing public and private buildings includ­ing schools, hospitals, police station, palaces among others.

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Shettima said the VSF intervention was a big relief especially in the face of the dwindling resources and impact of the over six years insur­gency on the economy of the state and its people. However, he appealed to VSF to consider the reconstruction of Maid­uguri-Ngala road, Maid­uguri-Bama-Banki road and that of Bama-Gwoza destroyed by the insur­gents’ landmine and ex­plosive devices.

Meanwhile, Chair­man of Borno State Emergency Agency (SEMA), Alhaji Ahmed Satomi, has said no fewer than 500,000 households will benefit from the World Food Programme in 2016.

Satomi, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Ni­geria (NAN) yesterday in Maiduguri, said 35, 000 households had so far benefited.

The chairman said the agency planned to reach out to 1.4 million Inter­nally Displaced Persons (IDPs) taking refuge in other communities. “We are targeting the most vulnerable couples, wid­ows and those who have passed through great hardship as a result of the insurgency. “Apart from our IDPs in the 28 camps, we also have about a million of them taking refuge in host communities of Jere and Maiduguri Metropoli­tan Council.