News: Minister of women affairs collapses at IDP camp

Hajiya Aisha Alhassan reportedly collapsed at an IDP camp in Adamawa state
Aisha Jummai Alhassan, the minister of women affairs and social development, has said she never slumped during her two day visit to the Internal Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) camp in Fufore Local Government Area of Adamawa state.
 Minister of women affairs, Aisha Alhassan reportedly collapsed at an IDP camp in Adamawa state. President Muhammadu Buhari had instructed Mama Taraba as fondly called to investigate allegations of human abuse in the IDP camps located in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. Speaking through her director of information, Mallam Hassan Dodo, Mama Taraba said “When I went into the stores to inspect the items, it was quite stuffy and I had to sit down, I even spoke to some press men after the inspection, I am shocked that it was reported that I slumped”. She said that after the visit she had gone to the government house and held town hall meeting with some women before finally leaving the state, saying, “I don’t know why the media will report something so false”. Reports had earlier suggested that Hajiya Aisha Alhassan, collapsed at an Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) camp on Monday, September 19.
 According to This Day, the minister collapsed at a camp situated in Fufore Local Government Area of Adamawa state while addressing vulnerable IDP women inside a store in the camp. The report stated that Alhassan, who was in crutches when she arrived the camp, and after addressing the IDPs, entered the store to discuss with some of the said vulnerable women sequel to an allegation by some foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on violation of some girls and women at the IDPs’ camps in the Northeast While discussing with the women, she collapsed, but was quickly assisted to a chair and given a bottle of Coke to drink, which revived her. According to some of her aides, she had been diagnosed with low sugar, a problem that creates serious weakness of the body. But despite her state of health, she managed to explain to journalists at the camp that her fact-finding mission to Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states tend to confirm the foreign NGOs’ allegation.
 The minister had earlier said that she was at the camp to give a message from President Muhammadu Buhari to the displaced persons, who wanted them to cheer up despite the hardship because everything was being done to ensure that they go back to their homes. She told the IDPs that the president was touched by their suffering and that was why he sent her to come and donate relief materials and felicitate with them. On Monday, the Network of Civil Society Organisations in Borno state, stated that most female members of the Internally Displaced Persons’ camp in the state have turned to prostitution to survive. Chairman of the CSOs, Ahmed Shehu, said that displaced women and teenagers were engaging in prostitution in order to raise money to feed their families. Alhassan also paid a courtesy visit to the Governor of Adamawa state, Alhaji Muhammadu Bindow, and told him that her visit to the IDPs was to investigate allegations of violation of girls and women and the compound issues of orphans and the vulnerable. She used the occasion to remind the governor of calls by various women groups on the need to return the women development centre, which was given to the Court of Appeal for its use. The state commissioner for Information, Mr Ahmad Sajoh, in his remarks, told the minister and her staff that the governor celebrated the last Ed-el-Kabir with the IDPs at the Malkohi camp.