By Inusa Ndahi, Maiduguri
The governor of Borno State, Babagana Umara Zulum, on Thursday supervised the distribution of N125 million cash, food and non-food items to over 40,000 families in Konduga Local Government Area of the state as part of the ongoing palliative exercise.
The distribution which took place at three centres was aimed at reducing the hardship faced by residents as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government in May this year.
The beneficiaries comprised 15,000 male heads of households, each of who received a 25 kg bag of rice and 10 kg bag of beans and there were 25,000 females who received N5,000 cash and a wrapper each.
The governor said, “In continuation of our efforts to distribute palliatives to vulnerable persons in Borno State, we are here in Konduga. In today’s distribution, about 25,000 vulnerable women, each received a wrapper and N5,000, translating to about N125 million. In addition to this, we also distributed one bag of 25kg rice and 10kg beans each to 15,000 male heads of households.”
Zulum began the distribution of fuel subsidy removal palliative in July, targeting about 300,000 households across Borno State, with priorities on communities most affected by insurgency.
Zulum later scaled up the distribution from 300,000 to 400,000 households.
Over 2,000 vulnerable families have benefited in each of the 27 wards from Zulum’s palliative in Maiduguri Metropolis and Jere Local Government Area.
However, every head of households living in the rural communities of the local governments affected by the insurgency will benefit.
Beside food distribution, Zulum introduced other measures, including 80 buses conveying farmers for free to and from their farms, 30 buses for subsidized transport of civil servants to their offices and back, as well as provision of subsidized metro city buses.
