₦5bn palliative: FCT undecided on what to do – Wike

The Minister, Federal Capital Territory Administration, Nyesom Wike, has said his administration has yet to make a decision on how to expend the ₦5billion palliative fund expected from the Federal Government.

This is as he noted his administration may consider transportation and food support while noting that efforts were ongoing to bring back urban mass transportation to the FCT to reduce commuters’ suffering.

Wike revealed the development to pressmen in Abuja on Monday night, after a closed-door meeting with contractors handling several projects in the FCT.

He said, “We are yet to decide on what to do with the ₦2billion palliative. We have not chosen any area yet. Are we going to concentrate on food, we are thinking that the issue of transportation is very very important, particularly the urban mass transit.

“People would like to have easy transportation to go to where they want to go, and if you give them rice and they eat the rice today, what about transportation tomorrow?

“So, we have not come up with what actually we are going to use the money for, but I believe food support and transportation is very key,” Wike said.

The Federal Government had on August 17 announced a ₦5billion palliative for each state of the federation, including the FCT, to cushion the impact of the removal of the petrol subsidy.

Some state governments have confirmed receiving ₦2billion from the amount, while awaiting the ₦3billion balance.

Meanwhile, Wike noted that the FCT was not earlier included in the disbursement of the N5billion palliative funds until he wrote a memo informing President Bola Tinubu of the development.

He, however, added that President Tinubu has approved the amount, noting that other states have received ₦2billion already, while expressing confidence that the FCTA will equally soon receive its own.