Lafia — The 95,538 recorded Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the floods of 2012 which hit about 200 communities in Nasarawa state, will begin to receive cash disbursement from the N400 million federal government relief package to the state, secretary of the taskforce on the management of the funds and other related matters, Dr Abdullahi Idris said.

He told Daily Trust yesterday that the taskforce will sit by today (Wednesday) to decide when the disbursement will commence, but added that "I think we will start by Thursday."

A total of 95,538 IDPs, about 8,000 from Guto alone, were recorded to have been displaced, and have been camping in four camps of Guto in Nasarawa, Tunga in Awe, Umaisha in Toto, and Rukubi in Doma, after about four months of flooding ravaged the state in 2012. Much of the communities hit are located along the Benue River, which over float it banks during the rainy season.

Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura has had to face mounting criticism because the disbursement of the funds did not come earlier enough, but Dr. Idris, who is also the Executive Secretary, Nasarawa State Emergency Agency (NASEMA) explained that the state already had a relief package through which funds and relief materials were already reaching the affected communities. He said the state government had to follow due process, in terms of ascertaining the actual data of displaced persons and communities, as well as the extent of the damage.