FG flood relief funds intact – Nasarawa govt

State Commissioner for Information, Mr Hamza Elayo said at the weekend that the fund was intact, and has not been tinkered with.He said the disbursement of the fund would only start after the committee set up to manage the money submits its report for implementation.“The funds are intact, at least N350 million after we used […]

State Commissioner for Information, Mr Hamza Elayo said at the weekend that the fund was intact, and has not been tinkered with.
He said the disbursement of the fund would only start after the committee set up to manage the money submits its report for implementation.
“The funds are intact, at least N350 million after we used part of it to provide relief to the thousands of displaced persons in these communities,” Elayo said.
He said the committee, headed by Dr. Mustapha Bello, was putting finishing touches to their report, adding that that was responsible for the delay.
He said that as soon as the reports were received, the implementation would begin and it would include resettlement of affected communities especially Guto, a community where not less than 8,000 of the about 95,538 displaced persons in the state reside.
He said the floods of last year washed off several infrastructural facilities including bridges, health facilities and educational centres, just as it swamped not less than 15,000 hectares of cultivated farmlands, throwing up huge challenges to the state.
Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, had said over N20 billion lost was recorded by the disaster, which swamped farmlands, and washed away bridges and other public facilities as well as individual properties across about 10 local government areas of the state.
The displaced persons were, earlier in the year, handed between N2,000 and N3,000 per family in few communities, sparking wide spread protests from the victims who insisted that the committee told them how they arrived at the decision that families needed such paltry sums for relief.
But Elayo said their period of hardship was over because the state government would soon swing into the full utilization of the funds.