News Desk
Nasarawa State like other states in the country, got her share of the Federal Government palliative aim at cushioning the effect of hardship citizens face as a result of the fuel subsidy removal .
It would be recalled that the current administration in the country l d by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu stopped payments for fuel importation upon assuming office in May 2023 and immediately swung into action and consulted relevant stakeholders on how best to tackle the dwindling economy of Nigeria which has adversely affected the social standard of the poor in the country, as it generated in hike of petroleum pump prices , high cost of food commodities and other consumables.
Nasarawa States a Federated unit was not exempted from high cost of living and hardship. A state which total dependency is on farming with a fraction few civil servants, was plunged into near collapse in commercial activities.
Penultimate weeks the Governor, Engineer Abdullahi announced that the state government access Two Billion Naira(2,000,000.000) out of the Five Billion Naira (5,000,000.000) earmarked for each state in the country.
Governor Abdullahi Sule further explained that the state was in received of additional Five Trailer loads of rice,he further stated that One Billion worth of Maize was procured from the Central Bank of Nigeria , which was already availability “We did not want to collect One Billion Naira in cash, so in our wisdom, we felt instead of the cash it was better for us to trade it for the maize to augment the Five Trailers of rice in order to have sufficient food items that can go round our people, while we await a balance of the Two Billion Naira from the federal government, which will make a total of Four Billion Naira . and by the time you put all that together including the One Billion worth of Maize, you will arrived at the Five Billion Naira that was promised to each state” The Governor stated through his deputy, Dr Emmanuel Akabe, at Keffi LGA in the state.
The Governor also averred that part of what was distributed included Spaghetti, cooking oil and spices.
The distribution which many saw as rather too small , sparked up disappointment and criticism, where it was alleged in some quarters that some of the beneficiaries parted home with only but two Tins milk of the rice, a turning soup spoon and a sachets of spaghetti that was shared to two persons .
At the wake of this information which went viral in social media, the governor went on air to debunked that what trended in the social media was not from Nasarawa State, saying the palliative that was distributed was that of the state in collaboration with some organisations and individuals and not the actual palliative received from the Federal Government.
However, in the preceded week, some officials of Nasarawa State Emergency Management Agency were arrested by the Department of State Security Service for diverting the palliative meant for distribution to vulnerable citizens of the state.
New National Star , authoritatively gathered and report that Governor Abdullah,i flagged off the distribution of palliative in Lafia the Nasarawa State Capital , before travelling for a national assignment hosted by UNICEF at
And on a second round of sharing the palliative, the governor again at a ceremony that marked the flagged off of the Federal Government palliatives , this time around at Karu Local Government Area, Five Hundred(500) bags of rice in 50 kg was given to the two Development Areas, namely Karshi and Panda, the overseers of the Areas being the chairmen of the committee set up for the distributions evacuated their allocations to their various development areas.
Our correspondent covered the distribution process at Karshi Development Area where the paramount ruler of Karshi, Dr Sani Mohammed , supported by a Second class staff of office, Alhaji Ahmed Hassan and the overseer of the development area,Honourable Arafat .. supervised the distribution exercise.
Karshi has Five Electoral Wards and we’re given One Hundred bags of the rice each , but in Panda our reporter gathered that the sharing formula did not followed the expected due process as was publicly declared by the Governor, who clearly stated that two persons will share a bag of the rice , supported by a cash donation of #5000 .This did not have any preference for party or religion belonging and affiliation.
But at Panda Development Area, still in Karu LGA , the turn out of event was different as beneficiaries complaint of getting only Four (4) measures of the rice and a cash donation of One Thousand Two Hundred and Fifty Naira(#1,250) each.
Narrating his experiences, one of the beneficiary of the palliative, Suleiman Isiaka from Gitata, a vulcanizer bitterly said they felt cheated by the officials handling the distribution of the palliative in Panda.
According to him” I was first given a form which I filled and with the assurances that when I get to Karu, I will be given a bag of the 50kg of rice and to also receive Fifteen Thousand Naira (#15,000.00).I was happy because the governor was there in person and flagged off the exercise which started with Karu, so myself and others from Panda Development Area asked of our own , but we were told to go back to Panda, and we left for panda, the following day, we were given only 4,4 Mudus of rice and the sum of #1250 each” Isiaka narrated.
He said the whole stress he went through which cost him Seven Thousand Naira only to get 4 mudus of rice and #1250 was regretted , calling on the Governor to intervene by drawing the attention of the overseer of Panda and one of the protocol officer in the office of the Chairman Karu LGA , who were the ones that distributed the palliatives in Panda.
And in Nasarawa Local Government Area , the distribution of the palliative was performed at the Emir’s palace as officiated by the state deputy governor,Dr Emmanuel Akabi, the Chairman of the Council, Honourable Sani Otto’s and the First Class staff of office traditional ruler of Nasarawa town, Alhaji Usman Ibrahim Jibrin, on Thursday.
The process as reliably gathered was hitch free and under tight security. Two Trailers load of 50k bags of rice was uploaded for distribution and cash donations.
Also, the Chinese mining companies domicile in Nasarawa Local Government made a pledge of Ten Million Naira in support of the council.
However ,the Chairman of the council, Honourable Sani Ottos ,in a telephone interaction with our correspondent appreciated the Federal Government under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu and Governor Abdullahi Sule for the milestone achievement which according to him point to the fact that Nigeria and Nasarawa State has gotten the right leaders whose drive is to alleviate their suffering .
He frown at allegation of any missing bag or bags of rice , saying all the Two Trailers containing 50kgs of rice were intact and he was not aware of any bag or bags of rice that was missing” These are all lies , capital lie. And for the Chinese, who only made a pledged not a cash donation, I wish to state her that they did not said it is to shared to those receiving the palliatives” Ottos added.
The week was more of a busy week for both the Governor and his Deputy , who toured the 13 Local Government Areas to ensured that there was no hitches or shortchanging of any ward in the state.
The cap it all, in Nasarawa State , apart from the distribution of the palliatives to the vulnerable person’s, governor Abdullahi Sule has also taken the bull by the horns to announce a welfare package for the state workforces.
At wamba Local Government Area, where the governor flagged off the distribution of the palliatives, workers in the state had reasons to smile when Engineer Abdullahi Sule rolled out some measures of palliative for Workers, Pensioners whom he said Will start Receiving 10k, 5k for the Next Six Months.
In his words ,the Governor posited that “For workers, for the next six months, starting from this week, we are not going to merge it with salary.
“Immediately workers finished receiving their salaries, for the next six months, every worker both at the state and local government levels, would continue to receive ₦10,000 as palliative from the side of the state government.
“For the next six months retirees from both the state and local government levels would also receive ₦5,000 as palliative. He said.
Buttressing his stand on delivering good governance that can affect the people positively, Governor Sule said bcause there are a lot of retirees in Nasarawa State, some of them he felt so sorry for are supposed to receive their gratuity as they were leaving but because it was not well planned, a lot of retirees up till this moment, have not collected their gratuity, especially at the local government level.
“Even though at the state level we decided to increase the amount so that more people would be receiving the gratuity. When I came in 2019, we realized that there were some people that retired in 1996 and they were not given their gratuity. And because they don’t have anybody to stand for them, some that retired in 2015, 2016 would get their gratuity. So we decided to change the system.”The Governor added.
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