The Jigawa Government has flagged off the distribution of COVID-19 palliative to 42,312 households across the 27 local government areas of the state.
The exercise was flagged off at Dutse Local Council Secretariat, in Dutse on Tuesday.
Speaking at a ceremony agging off the distribution, the state’s Head of the Civil Service, Mr. Hussaini Ali said the palliative was provided by the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID).
Ali, who is the Chairman of the state’s COVID-19 sub-committee on palliative, said that the coalition had donated a substantial food palliative to all 36 states and FCT.
He added that a total of 94 trucks with 49,941 packages containing varieties of food items were donated to Jigawa.
Following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in Nigeria, he said, the coalition of businessmen, banks, philanthropists and other like minds came together under the aegis of CACOVID and offered assistant in time of need to all Nigerians.
“This was meant to complement the state efforts to ameliorate the unbearable socio-economic hardship on the background of the negative impact that came with COVID-19 pandemic on the citizenry.
“This amazing coalition donated substantial food items as palliatives to all states in Nigeria, including our beloved Jigawa,’’ Ali said.
According to him, items packaged included rice, spaghetti, indomie noodles, maize flour, garri, sugar and salt.
He explained that the items were to be shared among the indigents in the 3,526 polling units across 27 local government areas of the state.
READ ALSO: FG Declares Sept. 16 As National Identity Day
In order to ensure that the items reached the deserving people, the chairman said that the committee ensured that the beneficiaries were selected by Chief Imam, Village Head, Hisbah/Vigilante personnel and Community Based Organisation (CBO) representatives in each of the polling units.
Twelve households, consisting of nine men and three widows with orphaned children were selected from each of the polling units.
“No political appointee, civil servant or salary earner were allowed to benefit from the items.
NAN reports that the items distributed to the beneficiaries included one carton of indomie noodles and spaghetti each, 10kg of rice, 5kg of white maize grills and 1kg of sugar and salt each.
NAN
