Yelewata massacre: PENGASSAN donates food, health materials to IDP camp

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASAN, has donated relief materials, including a truckload of food items and household materials, to the victims of the recent deadly attack on the Yelewata in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.

This is as the community leaders have lamented that they have about five million displaced people in about fifty Internally Displaced Persons, IDP camps in the state.

Presenting the items to the management of the IDP camp in Yelewata, Chairman of PENGASAN Foundation, Mr. David Owan, said they were touched by the suffering imposed on the innocent farmers by the attack.

Owan, who is the national treasurer of PENGASAN, explained that the Foundation is a humanitarian organisation established to assist and provide support to indigent citizens.

He said: “On behalf of the PENGASAN president, Comrade Festus Osifo, we are here as PENGASAN Foundation to present some food items and household materials to the Yelewata Community taking refuge in the internally displaced persons camp who were victims of the unfortunate incident.

“We came to show our solidarity with the good people of Yelewata. We understood what happened and the suffering, and the challenges the people have been going through.

“As oil workers we are using this foundation to see that bring succor to the people and in this case to the people of Yelewata community.”

Owan told the displaced people, comprising men, women and children who were anxiously waiting to receive the goodies brought by the team, that PENGASSAN felt their pain and had brought a truck loaded with various items to help cushion their suffering.

According to him: “Whatever we are bringing today, we know cannot be enough but it is meant to bring a little relief hoping that God will help restore normalcy here in no distant time.”

One of the community leaders present to receive the PENGASSAN Foundation team, Mr. Julius Gor, expressed appreciation for the donation.

He said, “We have more than 50 camps in Benue State put together. Within the diocese where we are, we have up to 10 camps scattered across the affected local government. So, sometimes logistically it’s difficult to reach out to the victims as we ought to. Some sleep in this church at night we have more than 5m people in IDP camps scattered across the state.”

When asked how safe the IDP Camp and community are, he said the people were still living in fear and apprehension.

He further stated that the herders are still feeding their cows in the farms despite efforts to prevent them from destroying crops in the farmland.

Gor appealed for assistance from the state and federal governments in providing them with more security through the establishment of police or army barracks.

One of the Catholic Priests in charge of the IDP Camp, Rev. Fr. Oguma Jonathan, thanked PENGASAN for assisting the people with food items and beddings.

He assured the camp that it would work with the identified elders of the community to ensure that the donated materials were fairly shared among the people.

The donated items included bags of rice, beans, maize, groundnut oil, yam tubers, cartons of noodles, spaghetti, tomato paste, sanitary pads, mattresses, and pillows.

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