The Nasarawa State government has supplied 13 trucks of rice to the 13 Local Government Areas of the state worth N120.9 million as palliatives to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on the people.
The State Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Dogo Shammah said the gesture was mainly for the poorest of the poor, who can hardly get three meals per day, excluding civil servants or those on any payroll.
The state government also warned against diverting the items as he said diversion is an act of criminality which the government would not condone.
The rice sent across the 13 Local Government Areas is packaged in 25kgs and 50kgs in the 13 trucks, whereas some trucks had 1, 200 bags and others 600 bags as the case maybe.
Shammah explained that the government adopted the strategy of visiting from one family to another through a committee set up by the state, comprising traditional rulers, religious representatives and other relevant stakeholders in all the local governments to identify those who qualify.
“We used the councilors as chairmen of the committees at the ward level, because we believed that the councilors, during their campaign, went round all communities, and as such, it is easy for them to identify the poor in their various wards”, he said.
He added that, considering the global health crisis, which has nearly crippled every human endeavour, the beneficiaries were selected without political and religion sentiments.
Shammah said distribution of such palliative would be a continuous exercise pending when the pandemic is defeated.
He appealed to those responsible for sharing the rice to be fair, just and to ensure it gets to the targeted persons, saying that soon, the distribution of the second batch would commence.
The commissioner also appealed for understanding by citizens over the hard decision taken by the state government to fight the deadly disease.
Solomon Attah, Lafia
