ENUGU STATE COMMENCES COLLATION OF NAMES TO BENEFIT FROM FG COVID-19 PALLIATIVES

Enugu State Government has begun collating names of indigent persons to benefit from special Federal Government palliative for COVID-19.

The process, which is being coordinated by the State Ministry of Rural Development, requires Presidents-General of Town Unions to provide names of indigent persons from their communities.

Forms for the enlisting of the beneficiaries were provided by the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, South East Zone.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO), Ministry of Rural Development, Mrs. Ifeoma Ogbu, explained why the State Government decided to engage the Presidents-General in the process.

According to the PRO, “the Presidents-General are the people who know the community, we refer to them here in Enugu State as the fourth tier of government that deal with the grassroots.

“Presidents-General collect the names of the poorest of the poor, village by village and they bring it to us. As we are talking, over 300 communities have submitted their forms.”

Some Presidents-General or their representatives including, Mr. Ambrose Nnadi from Imilike Ani, Chief Andy Egbo from Obeagu, and Chief Joseph Ibezim Onwukwe from Uwani-Umuoka who spoke with Radio Nigeria expressed hope that the exercise would not be in vain.

“The names that were are expected to fill and have filled are the indigent people: the widows, widowers, people that cannot afford to have three square meals a day in our community.

“The form, according to them, is for the poorest of the poor. And this is the first time ever we are getting such opportunity from the Federal Government since the inception of the Buhari led administration.

“We are expecting that the Federal Government has to do something to cushion the effects of this stay-at-home because the lockdown is affecting everybody.

“It is either they give us food or they give us money to buy food because we are complying with the directive of the Federal Government and the State, including that of the Local Government,” the President’s-General stated.

Meanwhile, the Town Union leaders also expressed the hope that members of their communities would be enrolled in the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of the Federal Government being executed under the Social Investment Programme (SIP).

CHUKWUBUIKE MADU