At the occasion which coincided with the 2017 Aniku day social gathering where the Special Adviser was turbaned for effective representation of the clan, the people expressed joy while thanking the governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello for his peoples oriented programmes.
The Special Adviser who said the cash support for the people to grow their businesses was just the first phase of his empowerment scheme, explained that the gesture was in partial fulfillment of electoral promises of the New Direction Administration under the leadership of Gov Yahaya Bello.
“This is just a token of appreciation for the support you are giving to the APC government in Kogi State. I must say I am very grateful over the show of love, support that the people of Aniku have shown to the leadership of His Excellency, Alh Yahaya Bello. In appreciating your support and unlike in the past, Yahaya Bello has mandated all his appointees across the state to return to their respective constituencies and share with them, the available dividend of democracy. Under the APC government, the people must feel the impact of change in their livelihood. I just want to use this occasion to appreciate the people of Aniku as beneficiaries of the pilot Phase of my empowerment Programme which will cut across our senatorial district soon”.
He said the administrations of President Muhammadu Buhari and that of Yahaya Bello of kogi state have taken measures that would herald better tidings over the current economic crunch the nation was facing while noting that the maladministration of the past governments was grievously monumental and require time to correct . He use the opportunity to inform the gathering on the true position of the government vis a vis the verification exercise. “86,100 workers were verified and out of this numbers, 43,000 workers were cleared and have been paid up till March, 2017.
During the exercise, 23,000 persons were identified as ghost or unintended beneficiaries while 18,000 were on uncleared list for various offenses. Our governor, in his magnanimity has pardoned those with less offenses like age falsification, absent without leave, study leave without permission and so on. Those that were pardoned by His Excellency that are currently undergoing final verification are the categories of persons that have not been paid and the governor has said they should be verified and all their salaries and arrears paid as soon as possible. The government is not owing her genuine workers as been speculated around”, Okara said.
Speaking on the development of SDGs, Arc Okara said the agency under the New Direction has recorded tremendous successes. He said, unlike in the past, project execution are been carried out based on equity, justice and fairness as they are evenly distributed across the 21 local government areas of the state.
It was all praises and celebrations for Governor Yahaya Bello as over 120 members of the Aniku clan received cash support of fifty thousand Naira each from Arc Okara. One of the beneficiaries, Hajia Hadiza Onimisi thanked the Special Adviser for the cash support, noting that the gesture will definitely boost her business.
The occasion also witnessed the dissolution and inauguration of the old and new executives of Aniku Development Association respectively.
