More than N15 million has been\u00a0 disbursed to landlords whose houses were affected by last year’s flood disaster in Ajaokuta Local Government Area of Kogi.<\/p>\n
Mr Echejo John, Director of the Local Government (DLG) and members of the Disbursement Committee stated this while addressing newsmen on Thursday in Lokoja.<\/p>\n
He said this was against media reports that the committee disbursed only N7 million.<\/p>\n
John denied reports that the flood victims in the area were treated unfairly in the disbursement of funds.<\/p>\n
“The information is misleading, false aimed at tarnishing the image of the State Government and the Local Government area. N15 million was given to Ajaokuta Local Government for disbursement to affected persons”, he said.<\/p>\n
The local government, John said, was subdivided into three groups of A, B and C, based on an acceptable formula for disbursement and the money was distributed.<\/p>\n
John explained that the committee shared the N15 million to the three groups of A, B and C on N5.88million, N8.58 million and N735, N150 respectively based on the number of communities in each group.<\/p>\n
He said the amount was part of the first phase of assistance to the victims.<\/p>\n
He said the exercise was on-going and continuous, and not a severance allowance.<\/p>\n
According to John, the state government has prepared a jumbo package to be delivered to the victims soon.<\/p>\n
On the distribution of N3,000 to each of the victims, especially in the Gadumo area of Lokoja, the chairman of the disbursement committee, Alhaji Sadiq Agunna said it was in phases.<\/p>\n
He said some of them got N50,000 earlier.<\/p>\n
John maintained that the government had done so much to the victims by expending almost N1 billion and wondered why the campaign to smear its good intentions.<\/p>\n
Messrs Ichapi Paul and Abu Lukeman, members of the disbursement sub-committee who are also victims, said Gadumo area got N665,000 and shared it among landlords of 150 accredited houses at about N4,400 each.<\/p>\n
Paul commended the efforts of the government in ensuring that they did not lose all.<\/p>\n
He, however, appealed for more support at relocating them from flood plains in view of NIMET’s prediction of heavy rainfall for 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than N15 million has been\u00a0 disbursed to landlords whose houses were affected by last year’s flood disaster in Ajaokuta Local Government Area of Kogi. Mr Echejo John, Director of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n