– Agency spends over N1bn in 175 community projects
The controversial case of the dreaded coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Kogi State, who is the Chief Imam of Kabba, Sheikh Abubakar Ejibunu, has been reportedly discharged from the National Hospital, Abuja.
Ejibunu, who was discharged about 4 p.m. on Friday, hale and hearty, will soon be with his family members.
A family member confirmed under anonymity that the cleric was taking his rest with a family member in Gwagwalada.
Two weeks ago, Ejubunu was moved from the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Lokoja, to the National Hospital where he was reportedly declared COVID-19 positive by the National Centre for Diseases Control, (NCDC).
Kogi government had immediately rejected the claim, saying NCDC did not carry the state’s ministry of health along on the series of tests conducted on the victim and therefore reiterated that the state was free of COVID-19.
But one Chief Taiye Ejibunu, on behalf of the imam’s family, swiftly issued a statement that the cleric was a carrier of the deadly disease and blamed the state government for covering the truth.
This sparked off another round of controversy, which made the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan; Senator Dino Melaye and Tajudeen Yusuf to variously issue statements urging the state government to be more alive with its responsibilities.
MEANWHILE, Kogi State Community and Social Development Agency (KGCSDA) has said that over N1 billion has been expended on projects with an average of N3.5 million per project in communities across the state.
General Manager of KGCSDA, Dauda Momoh, stated this at the second day of a two-day training organised for desk officers from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and community development officers from the 11 councils of the state on ‘Best Practices in Projects Implementation, Monitoring and Supervision’ held in Okene at the weekend.
According to him, the state’s Community and Social Development Project–Additional Financing (CSDP–AF) will end this month, adding that a lot of ground-breaking achievements have been recorded.
The manager explained that the agency within the period under review executed 64 micro-projects in Kogi East, 57 in the Kogi West and 54 in Kogi Central.
While commending Governor Yahaya Bello for providing enabling environment for the projects embarked upon by the agency, Dauda pointed out that the projects cut across education, rural electricity, environment and natural resources, gender, health, socioeconomic, transport and water sectors.
He pointed out that the agency was working towards tailoring its projects in the next phase to meet the impact of COVID-19, under a programme tagged COVID-19 Action Response and Economic stimulus, and charged the communities to take ownership of projects in their areas to ensure their sustainability.
In their separate responses, the Community Development Officer (CDO) for Okene Council, Mohammed Abdulazeez; and his Dekina counterpart, Mohammed Ogu, thanked the agency for the level of transparency exhibited while executing the projects and urged it not to rest on its oars.
Follow our socials Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google News.
