Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule has acknowledged the receipt of N3 billion from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration to fight flooding.
Sule announced this while presiding over an expanded State Executive Council (Exco) meeting at the Government House in Lafia.
The governor, who expressed appreciation to the President for fulfilling his promise during one of the National Executive Council (NEC) meetings, assured him that every kobo received would be used judiciously to mitigate the impact of flooding.
Sule recalled that immediately he was informed by the state’s Accountant General about the receipt of the money, he summoned officials of the Ministry for Humanitarian Affairs to discuss how best to utilise the fund.
“The money has been received by the Accountant General. When I was informed, I called the team together to discuss it. But I think we should discuss it in detail here to accept how to utilise the funds. What I asked the Accountant General to do is to create a dedicated account for this N3 billion.
“We want to make sure that every kobo that we spent is accounted for and is related to floods. It will come from the items of people who have some kind of destruction and see how we are assisting them.]
“I think that is what the government would like to have so that even if no state is submitting details of how they spent the money, I want us in Nasarawa to do that,” he said.
Addressing reporters after the meeting, Commissioner for Special Duties on Humanitarian Affairs and NGOs, Dr. Magret Elayo, said her ministry had undertaken the assessment on areas that would be affected by floods.
Elayo named flood prone local governments in the state as Nasarawa, Toto, Awe, and Doma.
The commissioner said there were floods recently in Lafia, Karu, Wamba, and other areas.
“Right now, we are at the implementation stage of using the resources to make sure that the people actually affected by the floods will be alleviated to a level where they can have a better living arrangement. We are going to provide food items and other households items pending when the floods subside so that we can move them back into their homes.
“Most of that is to make sure we fix some of the properties that have been damaged and make sure we provide them temporary accommodation that is conducive to live in,” she said.