His Excellency, Engr. Abdullahi A. Sule attends the proceeding of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting for the adoption of final written addressee by parties involved in the case.
Distribution of Palliatives in Nasarawa State continues today in Assakio Development Area of Lafia LGA.
His Excellency, Engr. Abdullahi A. Sule, the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State presided over the distribution of four hundreds (400) 50kg bags of rice and two hundreds (200) Big Bags of Maize with five thousand naira (5000) each to vulnerable households in Assakio Development Area of Lafia LGA.
The Governor personally presented the rice, maize and five thousand naira to the beneficiaries.
Nasarawa State Governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, has approved for the immediate commencement of the payment of ten thousand naira and five thousand to civil servants and pensioners in the state respectively, as palliative, aimed at cushioning the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy.
The directive also include paying the same amount for workers and pensioners at the local government level.
Engineer Sule gave the directive after meeting with labour leaders, at the Government House, on Monday.
The Governor directed the state Accountant General, Head of Civil Service, Commissioner, Ministry for Local Government, Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Director General, Nasarawa State Pension Bureau, as well as the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), to liaise together with a view to commencing the payment of the palliative immediately.
The meeting was convened at the instance of the Governor to harmonize views on the worker’s palliative following feelers that the unions may have different views on what they want for the pallatiative.
Engineer Sule took time to explain in detail the idea behind the pallatiative, especially the N5bn given to each state by the Federal Government.
“The arrangement for the palliative is very simple. The Federal Government will give us N4bn in cash, as well as N1bn in cash in order to cushion the hardship created by the removal of fuel subsidy.
“The one billion is going to be in form of a loan which the state is going to pay back. The N4bn is going to be divided into two, N2.08bn would be borne by the Federal Government, N1.02bn is by the state. It’s a grant and loan combined together. Every state has taken N2bn so far,” he stated.
The Governor explained that even at that, there are conditions tied to the money given by the Federal Government on how the money is to be expended.
A lot of people don’t understand much about that N4bn. The way it was calculated was that we are going to buy one hundred thousand bags of 50kg rice at N40, 000 per bag, and share in the state. That is the understanding of Mr. President. Part of it is loan, part of it is grant. But you are going to buy 100, 000 bags of rice.
“This one that we are talking about that we are giving as palliative, including the N10000 and N5000, is not out of this N2bn. I think it’s good that we have that clear understanding. The local government are giving out of their improved allocation, out of the improved revenue that we are getting as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy,” he said.
On the plea by the labour leaders to use the money meant to be giving to workers as palliative to implement consequential increment for workers on level 7 and above, as well as promotions, Engineer Sule said his administration would rather do something that would give every citizen of the state a sense of belonging. He further urged the labour unions to be realistic in their demands, especially given the prevailing economic realities.
“For palliative, you try to do something that would give everyone a sense of belonging. If you focus only on the civil servant, it would remain a civil servant affairs. Some of the states have offered a minimum of N10, 000 to their workers. In our state we said let’s do a little more than that. We are also offering N5, 000 to pensioners because they are also citizens of the state.
“Why are we doing this? Because N5bn is given uniformly to the states irrespective of the population. We are one of the smallest states. If a state with 15m people would be giving that amount to cushion the effects, our state should be able to do something extra. That is the wisdom behind us doing something probably some of the bigger states may not do ” the Governor said. Engineer Sule however assured the labour leaders that the issues of consequential increment and promotion would be addressed by his administration. “At the end of the six months period, hopefully our income would remain the same or even better. From the seventh month, I have absolutely no problem. Instead of using the resources for something else, we would use some percentage to address the consequential increment,” he added.
Responding, both Comrades Ayuba Ismaila Oko and Mohammed Doma, state chairmen of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), respectively agreed with Engineer Sule regarding the payment of ten thousand naira and five thousand naira to workers and pensioners.
The labour leaders, including the representative of pensioners in the state, thanked the Governor for his magnanimity, while also pledging to differ their earlier claims regarding the payment of consequential increment and implementation of promotion to a later date as agreed by the Governor.
His Excellency, Engr. Abdullahi A. Sule, the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State presided over the distribution of 2,400 of 7.5kg bags and 1000 bags of 50kg rice with 5000 Naira each to vulnerable households in Kokona LGA to cushion the hardship over the removal of fuel subsidy.
The rice and cash are part of palliatives designed to cover 1000 selected vulnerable households in each Local Government Area.
Distribution of palliatives in Nasarawa State continues today in Wamba LGA.
His Excellency, Engr. Abdullahi A. Sule, the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State presided over the distribution of 50kg bags of rice and 5000 Naira each to vulnerable households in Wamba LGA.
The rice and cash are part of palliatives designed to cover 1000 selected vulnerable households in each Local Government Area.
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.
As part of the on going distribution of palliatives in Nasarawa State, His Excellency, Governor Abdullahi Sule presents bags of fifty kg rice to 1000 households in Karu.
The Governor personally presented the bags of rice to about 150 beneficiaries. In addition each of the beneficiaries got the sum of five thousand naira.
Apart from Karu, the exercise will be replicated to another set of 1000 beneficiaries in Panda and Karshi development areas.
Nasarawa State Command of Department of State Services (DSS) has intercepted a suspected criminal syndicate that are responsible for diversion and sale of palliatives belonging to The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) meant for distribution to the vulnerable in the state.
The State Ministry of Information Culture and Tourism views this development as sad and an unacceptable attempt to sabotage the genuine efforts of both the Federal government to provide succour to the majority of vulnerable persons within the society.
It is therefore heartwarming that the DSS, which has already apprehended some of the criminals, has assured that investigation is continuing and that any person involved would be brought to book.
The DSS in the message to the Ministry maintained that it is keenly watching all those saddled with responsibility of distributing the parliatives belonging to the National Emergency Management Agency and warned that it would not spare anyone found to be involved in the criminal activity.
Part of the items recovered by the DSS include 140 bags of Guinea Corn of 20kg each and 150 bags of Rice of 20kg each linked to an unscrupulous business man at the Lafia Modern Market that fingered some staff of the state emergency management agency, NASEMA, that sold the items meant for thousands of the vulnerable for N1million.
The state Ministry of Information Culture and Tourism therefore enjoins the public to heed to the warning by the DSS and desist from buying the parliatives belonging to NEMA and or engaging with the criminals, but should rather not hesitate to avail the DSS with any useful information that would assist it in carrying out it’s responsibility.
The Ministry of Information Culture and Tourism while commending the DSS for the proactive steps taken to confront the criminals, is giving the full assurance of the State Government’s support to ensuring that any person involved in the criminal activity must be make to face the full wrath of the law.
YUSUF MUSA Esq.
Permanent Secretary
His Excellency, Dr. Emmanuel Agbadu Akabe, Deputy Governor, Nasarawa State on behalf of his principal, H.E. Engr. Abdullahi A Sule today flagged-off officially the distribution of palliative to Doma LGA occasioned by the removal fuel subsidy. His Excellency ensured that the palliative gets to the poorest of the poor and the distribution was thoroughly monitored.
You will recall that last week, His Excellency Engr. Abdullahi A. Sule and his Deputy performed the symbolic presentation of palliative in the 3 Senatorial zones of the State, hence the full swing of the distribution to Local Government Areas. RGREAT
As part of his engagements for the day His Excellency Engr. Abdullahi Sule visited the APC National Secretariat where he met with the National Chairman of the Party, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
Here Engr. Sule in company of the APC National Legal Adviser, Prof. Abdulkarim Kana exchanges pleasantries with party faithfuls after the meeting.
Nasarawa State Government