The Plateau Government on Saturday, began distribution of palliatives at the state’s Emergency Management Agency Warehouse in Jos, as part of efforts to cushion the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on indigents in the state.
The Chairman of the Palliative Committee and Deputy Governor of the state, Prof. Sonni Tyoden, speaking the flag off, said the gesture was to give succour to specific categories of people in the society.
“We are focusing on particular categories which are the orphans, people living with disabilities and five households in each polling unit in the state,” he said.
He explained that the intervention would not include beneficiaries of the federal government social investment programme and salary earners in the state, saying their salaries would be paid.
He said the exercise marked the beginning of distribution of the palliatives to the 21 registered orphanages in the state, while the list of people living with disabilities in all the local government areas was being compiled by the state’s Disability Commission.
According to Tyoden, this is to ensure that the items reached the appropriate beneficiaries.
He said the other items would be distributed to the 17 Local Government Areas in the state for onward distribution to wards and polling units where five households would be identified and given palliatives.
Responding, the Plateau State coordinator of orphanages, Mrs Grace Solomon, appreciated the governnment for considering the orphans as one of its top priority in the distribution exercise, assuring that the items would reach the beneficiaries.
She said the orphanages having more than 2,000 orphans would appreciate the constant support of the the state governnment even beyond COVID-19 pandemic, adding that they had enormous needs.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that items distributed to the 21 orphanages included 100 cartons of pasta, 15 cartons of noodles, 113 cartons of vegetable oil and 26 bags of semovita.
Other items include 1,475 bags of rice, 199 bags of maize flour, 60 cartons of seasoning cubes, 10 cartons of hand sanitisers , 47 cartons of beverages and 10 bags of detergent, among other items.
