…Distributes Palliatives To Vulnerable People
By Mohammed Abubakar Dutse
A week after the end of the 10-day nationwide protest against hunger and bad governance, the Jigawa state governor, Umar Namadi, has fingered his political opponents as sponsoring misguided youths to wreck havoc on public institutions and private properties across the state.
In his first public comment since the outbreak of the protest which left in its trail properties worth millions of naira looted and destroyed across the state, Namadi described the development as sad and disheartening, which ran against the gains of the state.
Namadi listed several efforts, including major economic interventions aimed at uplifting the economic status of the people of the state, most especially the youths.
“Considering these ever-ongoing efforts by both the federal and the state governments, what happened in our state recently was really unfortunate and very disheartening.
“Despite repeated calls for restraint by the Ulamas and other highly respected members of our communities, a protest that could have otherwise been peaceful and orderly, was hijacked by certain crooked individuals hoodlums, apparently to vent political resentments against the government and peace-loving people of state.
“More disheartening is how these political miscreants lured and polluted the minds of some of our unsuspecting youths into participating in the unruly protests.
“There is no doubt this has taken us several steps backwards as public and private properties worth several billions of Naira, including emergency relief materials and agricultural inputs meant to be distributed to the vulnerable segments of the population, were looted or vandalized.”
However, despite the appeals by some notable political heavyweights on the governor to pardon the over 300 people so far arrested in connection with the protests, the governor insisted that the the arrested youth’s must be allowed to face the full wrought of the law to serve as a deterrent to similar occurence in future.
Namadi said the federal government delivered the food items for emergency distribution to the people.
He said the assorted food items delivered by the federal government included 13,825 bags of Sorghum, 9,500 bags of Millet, 11500 bags of Maize, and 24,000 bags of Rice.
“To ensure that we reached more households the state government has tupped up with 23,000 cartons of Spaghetti, 5,000 bags of rice, 500 bags of sorghum, and 5,000 bags of Maize ,” the governor stated.
respectively.
Speaking at the flag off of the distribution of the 59000 grains items gawa state government has commenced the distribution of 59,000 bags of 25kg of Rice and other assorted grains to the less privileged persons across the 287 political wards of the state.
The State Commissioner for Special Duties Auwalu Danlladi Sankara said the beneficiaries were carefully selected from across the 27 local government areas of the state.
He said the distribution of the palliative items delivered by the federal government which was flagged off in Dutse was just a continuation of a series of palliative and empowerment packages embarked by governor Namadi in which so far over 3 million people were directly benefited in the state.
According to him, the stakeholder’s committee was formed to ensure equal distribution of the items to each local government, and other specified beneficiary bodies and organizations as directed by the federal government.
“We selected 100 beneficiaries from each political ward and all necessary logistics and preparations were made to ensure the success of the exercise within a short period.”
The Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Hajia Zubaida Umar, who was represented by the Kano Zonal Director, Dr. Nura Abdullahi said the federal government released 42,000 metric tones of Maize, Millet, Rice, and Sorghum from the national food reserve for distribution across the country.
She commended Jigawa state government for timely action in distributing the items which was aimed at reducing the hardship faced by people across the nation, and described Jigawa State Emergency Response System as worth emulation for other states.
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