Victims of bomb blasts in northern Nigeria since 2010 are demanding access to a support fund set up by the government in July 2014 to cater for victims of insurgency.
The Chairman of the victims, under the umbrella Bomb Victims Association of Nigeria, Mr Kayode Oladele, said hundreds of survivors of the blasts, who sustained different levels of injuries, were still unable to get proper medical care years after the blasts despite the availability of 80 billion Naira raised for the fund last year.
But the Executive Director of the Victims Support Fund, Dr Sunday Ochoche, told Channels Television that the actual amount raised was 54 billion Naira out of which only 24 billion Naira had been redeemed with a key focus on rehabilitation of women and children.
Not Properly Treated
The Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, out rightly condemned the stance, saying that the administration of such a fund without the involvement of victims and with persistent complaints from those for whom the fund was set up subverts the mission of the fund.
Professor Odinkalu said 24 billion Naira was a huge amount of money of which only a fraction would cater for all such victims
Many of the victims seeking access to the funds sustained different degrees of injuries which they said had not been properly treated, leaving many of them still fighting for their lives.
They are asking for their medical bills to be taken care of and for the lives of survivors to be saved, considering the fact that more victims are affected with every blast which still occur in their numbers to date.
On Sunday a bomb blast at a Sunday market in Damaturu, the capital of Yobe State left 15 persons dead and about 47 others injured.
The Boko Haram terrorist group is believed to have carried out the attack.
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