Stakeholder forum of Limawa B Ward in Chanchaga Local Government Area of Niger State has handed over palliative items to the distribution committee for onward distribution to the beneficiaries at the various polling unit levels.
Addressing some members of the committee who came to receive the items at his residence on Sunday morning, the Chairman of the stakeholders and former Chief of Staff to the former Governor of Niger State, Al-Amin Mika'il Bmitosahi, charged the distribution committee to be fair in their distribution.
He acknowledged that they received the sum of N20 million for Limawa B ward palliative out of the N220 million given to the 11 wards of the local government, and he said members of the stakeholders forum met and discussed how to utilise the share of Limawa B judiciously.
Mika'il Bmitosahi gave a breakdown of how the money was used to purchase the items handed over for distribution, disclosing that they bought 195 bags of 50kg polished rice at the rate of N9m, 50 bags of beans at the rate of N3m, 100 bags of gari at the rate of N4.7m, as well as 196 cartons of spaghetti at the rate of N2m, totaling N18.7m.
He went further to explain that they rebagged the items into smaller units of 5kg bags, revealing that after the rebagging they got 1,800 5kg of rice, 935 5kg of beans, and 2,228 5kg of gari, while the spaghetti was binded into three pieces, where they got 1,156 blinded spaghetti.
Al-Amin Bmitosahi also informed members of the distribution committee that the repackaging of the items, which included purchasing and sealing the bags as well as other logistics of transportation, loading, and offloading of the items, cost about a million, announcing that each of the three zones of the ward will be given N50,000 each for transportation of the items to the various distribution units.
He charged the distribution committee to be fair and ensure that only those who actually needed the items benefited from them, expressing that the items would not go to all the targeted beneficiaries but that the various distribution committees should take note of those who didn't get them so that they would be captured in the next phase of palliative distribution as they were expecting more items from the government.
Mika'il Bmitosahi also disclosed that members of the stakeholders forum will go round to monitor the distribution and warned members of the committee against shortchanging the beneficiaries, saying anyone caught in the act will be made to face the law.
In their separate remarks, Dr. Abubakar Mohammed and former Director General of the Child Rights Agency, Barr. Maryam Kolo, who were also members of the stakeholders forum of Limawa B, said they were determined to be the best ward in the palliative distribution in the state and, as such, will follow the distribution process to the end.
They disclosed that each family will get one of the four items, but that an extremely vulnerable family that needs the palliative most will be given preferential treatment by getting all four items.
The stakeholders equally called on the people of the ward to maintain decorum during the distribution, assuring that all those who needed the palliative would get it.
Police operatives attached to Kontagora Area Command of Niger State have arrested two suspects, Shafiu Mohammed, 22 years old, and Abubakar Yusuf, 19 years old, both from Anguwan Tukura Kontagora, in Kontagora Local Government, on the ground of breaking into the premises of Government Science Unity College Kontagora and stealing some school items.
The arrest of the two suspects was based on credible intelligence received by the police August 24, 2023 at 21:00 hrs, at the same address of the alleged criminal offence, according to the Niger state Police Command Public Relations Officer (PPRO) DSP Wasiu Abidoun in a press release issued and obtained by Newsline yesterday.
According to him, Shafiu Mohammed narrated during interrogation that in the first week of August 2023, he was in the said school premises for a farming job given to him by a staff of the school, while on the 13th of the same month, he conspired with Yusuf to gain entry into the school through the fence, and in the process, they stole some inverter batteries and cables from the school, which were later sold to one Nura Mohammed at the rate of N16,000.
Similarly, on August 23, at about 2:00 p.m., the duo returned to the school, broke the wall of the school again, and carted away four ceiling fans and electrical wares from the school hostel.
According to the press release by the PPRO, the items were kept in an uncompleted building by a river within the area with the intention of contacting the same Nura for possible disposal.
The two suspects, Shafiu and Yusuf, claimed to be welders and tailors, respectively, and that their quest for more money had led them into the crime.
In the course of the investigation, the said receiver, Nura, was arrested while the suspects led the police team to where the items were kept, and the following exhibits were recovered: four luminous inverter batteries, four ceiling fans, some electrical items, and two electrical switches.
The two suspects, DSP Wasiu said in his press release, have been transferred to SCID for discreet investigations and prosecution, and they will be arraigned in court as soon as investigations are concluded.
