Adamawa State Government Spends N1.6B On 10 Shuttle Buses From N5billion Subsidy Palliatives | #NwokeukwuMascot

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The Adamawa State government has disclosed that it received N2billion out of the N5billion announced by Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, to cushion the effect of the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

The state government said it had, however, procured N1.4 billion worth of grains in order to crash the prices of foodstuff by 50 per cent in the state.

On August 17, the federal government announced a N5 billion palliative for each state of the federation, including the federal capital territory (FCT), to cushion the impact of the removal of the petrol subsidy. Babagana Zulum, governor of Borno State, had made the announcement in Abuja while briefing State House correspondents at the end of a National Economic Council (NEC) meeting.

Speaking on the implementation of the palliatives, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Awwal Tukur, while briefing journalists in Yola on Monday, noted that the government had also procured 10 units of Nigerian made luxury buses to ameliorate the hardship being experienced due to the high cost of transportation.

Speaking on the components of the subsidy palliative program, Tukur, who doubled as the chairman of the committee said the government would provide succour in multi-dimensional areas including transportation, subsidised food and non-food items to all the 226 wards in the state.

According to the SSG, to subsidise the cost of transportation which had spiralled in the aftermath of the subsidy removal, the state government procured 10 Innoson shuttle buses at the cost of N1.6 billion, which when deployed would ease the suffering of civil servants, students and other low income earners in the state capital.

He noted that the core goal of the exercise was to bring relief to the most vulnerable members of the society including orphans, widows, people living with disability, boarding schools, women and youth groups adding that eight groups will benefit from the programme.

He said, "In order to ensure an all-encompassing programme which carries everyone along, the distribution of the palliatives will be done at ward level.

"The distribution of the palliatives will be data-driven as the committee has obtained substantial data after its inauguration. Soon after data validation the committee will swiftly swing into action expectedly from Tuesday."

Tukur said one of the most important components of the palliative is the constitution of an independent monitoring and evaluation committee charged with the responsibility of providing feedback and guidance so as to improve on areas of strengths and strengthen identified weaknesses.

He added, "so far the federal government has made available the sum of N2 billion loan palliative in addition to five trucks of rice. The state government has on its own procured 50 trucks to complement the federal government's gesture.

"To ensure the sustainability of the programme, the state government will crash the cost of the items by 50 percent. A 25kg bag of rice with market value of N20,000 will sell at N10,000 only.”

"The state government has earmarked N1.4 billion to procure 50 trucks of rice which is equivalent to 1,500 metric tonnes of the commodity," Tukur added.