…continues with palliative distribution in Karu, Keffi
…as Governor unfolds additional measures for civil servants, pensioners
Nasarawa State Governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, has congratulated President Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC), as well as all Nigerians, over the judgements of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) dismissing the petition of the Labour Party, stressing that the judgment is a victory for all Nigerians.
Engineer Sule congratulated President Tinubu, the APC and Nigerians while distributing palliative to vulnerable people at the palace of the Esu Karu, HRH Pharmacist Luka Panya Baba, on Wednesday.
The Governor said the victory at the PEPT is for the peace of the country and an opportunity for all Nigerians to join hands together to work for the progress of the country.
In its lead judgment on Wednesday, the PEPT dismissed the petition filed by the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, challenging the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the February 25 election.
The Governor who couldn’t hide his excitement, expressed appreciation over the victory in one of the three cases instituted to challenge the victory of the president and the party at the 2023 presidential election.
“Let me use the opportunity to congratulate His Excellency, congratulate our party, congratulate INEC and congratulate Nigerians because it’s the judgment is a victory for all Nigerians, for the peace of Nigeria. It’s an opportunity for all to come and work together for the progress of this country,” he stated.
Speaking on the event, Engineer Sule announced that each of the 13 local government areas of the state would receive 1000 bags of 50kg of rice, which would be shared to 1000 vulnerable persons.
He added that, each beneficiary of 50kg bag of rice would also receive five thousand naira cash.
The Governor used the opportunity of the event to disclose additional measures aimed at taking care of civil servants, pensioners, as well as the procurement of ten CNG buses to ply at a reduced fair aimed at reducing transportation cost across the state.
Engineer Sule emphasized that he has taken it upon himself to supervise the distribution of the palliative to ensure that the items get to the actual beneficiaries.
“As you know, this is an initiative by the Federal Government in order to cushion the effect of the hardship created by the removal of fuel subsidy. I have mentioned it many times and I am sure so many people already heard it. That a total of 5bn is going to be given to every state but it’s not going to be all cash. N2bn has been released to us as a government, N2bn will be released later and this is for all the 36 states. Another 1bn is coming to us in form of grains. And we have already started receiving that as well.
“We started initially by buying 50kg bag of rice and rebagging them into 7.5kg. By doing that, we were thinking it was an opportunity to give more people. Because the process is taking long, we decided to go ahead and share the 50kg bags at the first stage and mostly because of the agitation for succour.
“Civil servants, both at the state and local government levels, are going to be given N10000 per month for the next six months. That is part of the palliative. Pensioners are also going to receive N5000 per month both at the state and local government levels for the next six months.
This is in addition to other palliative that would be provided including buses that we are buying about 10 of them that will be able to drive on CNG and those buses will be at a reduced transport fair to reduce the cost of transportation for our people.
“As for the rice, we decided that every local government will receive 1000 of the 50kg bags and they will give us 1000 names so that everyone that is receiving one 50kg bag would also receive N5000 along,” he stated.
Engineer Sule directed that since the beneficiaries from Panda and Karshi Development Areas were not present in Karu, their share of the palliative would be taken to Keffi, for onward distribution to the beneficiaries who were advised to head to the palace of the Emir of Keffi.
In Keffi, the Governor announced similar arrangement for beneficiaries from the local government areas, stressing that each beneficiary would take home a 50kg bag of rice and five thousand naira.
He explained that he decided to come himself to supervise the distribution because he wanted to be sure that each beneficiary gets what due to him or her.