The Ebonyi State government has unveiled the receipt of N2billion and 3,000 bags of rice from the Federal Government as palliatives to cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal.
The Nation paper reported that, state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr Jude Okpor, made the disclosure on Thursday in Abakaliki while briefing newsmen at the end of the weekly state Executive Council meeting.
Okpor claimed that at the meeting, Governor Francis Nwifuru announced the receipt of those palliatives and then established a 10-person committee to oversee fair distribution.
“The governor will serve as the committee’s chairman, while the deputy governor will provide assistance.
The chairman of the state traditional rulers council, the secretary to the state government, and the state chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), among others, are members of the committee, he said.
The commissioner mentioned that the government has authorized giving N2 million to each of 1,500 state residents who work as hawkers and other menial professions both within the state and across the nation.
“The state executive council had instructed the commissioners for skills development, commerce, and industry to travel to major cities around the nation and locate those working menial professions like street hawking.
“The initiative would be implemented in three phases with 500 beneficiaries in each step at a cost to the state of around N3 billion.
The first 500 recipients will begin receiving training and subsequent empowerment as soon as the required frameworks are in place, he said.
He pointed out that the government had authorized paying retired civil officials’ arrears in gratuities from 1996 to 2021 at a cost of N4.3 billion.
Additionally, the state executive council ordered that all problems with the pension payments to select beneficiaries be remedied right away.
He stated that the governor’s “magnanimous gesture is intended to lessen the suffering of our senior citizens and serve as a morale booster to workers who are still in service.”
(NAN)
Saan1 (
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