80% of Gombe people live in abject poverty – Governor

Gombe State Governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya has lamented that about 80 percent of the state’s 3.2 million population live in abject poverty.

The governor who spoke in the state capital on Thursday while receiving the governing board of the North East Development Commission, regretted that the number of poor people was almost multiplied due to the effect of Boko Haram insurgency in the neighbouring Borno and Yobe states.

“Our population has risen fom 1.2 million people on creation to about 3.2 million people in 2019, increment of about 2 million population in 23 years,” he said. “However, 80 percent of the population are living in abject poverty, which calls for great concern.”

The governor pleaded with the commission for support, noting that his government would reciprocate by providing the commission with whatever support it needed to succeed.

In his own remarks, Chairman of the Commission’s board, Paul Tarfa, noted that in the last decade of the insurgency, about 20, 000 lives were lost and over two million people were displaced with wanton destruction of public buildings and means of livelihood.