No fewer than 500 elderly citizens of Badagry Local Government Area on Saturday received palliatives from the council authority as part of activities marking its one-year anniversary in office.

The council chairman, Babatunde Hunpe, who personally handed out the palliatives, said they were provided under the council’s Renewed Hope Support Programme for senior citizens, held at the Badagry Secretariat.

Mr Hunpe said the distribution of the palliatives was part of efforts to alleviate poverty and help put food on the tables of elderly people in the community.

He said that after distributing the palliatives to the elderly, the council would begin distributing them to widows and members of the general public in the coming week.

“My administration promised to be all-inclusive, carrying everybody along, both the elderly and the youth in the society, so that everyone can benefit from the dividends of democracy.

“This is exactly what we are doing, and I am glad that the senior citizens have come out en masse to benefit from this laudable gesture, which is also aimed at supporting President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda,” he said.

The chairman said elderly citizens who were too old and feeble to attend the occasion would have their palliatives delivered to their doorsteps.

“This is to ensure that every one of them captured will benefit from the Renewed Hope Agenda of our amiable President,” he said.

Mr Hunpe said the programme would not be a one-off event but would be continuous in nature so that more people could be empowered as the days went by.

“We have also been empowering 200 people every month with N100,000 each as part of our promise to reach out to 4,000 people within 20 months,” the chairman said.

The council’s Supervisor for Senior Citizens and Social Services, Risikat Padonu-Hassan, said the palliative consisted of foodstuffs such as rice, garri, beans, semovita and vegetable oil.

Mrs Padonu-Hassan said the 500 senior citizens were selected from across the 10 wards within the Badagry LGA, adding that the programme would be a continuous one.

One of the beneficiaries, Matthew Hunpe, appreciated the gesture from the chairman and his team, saying that it would go a long way towards putting food on the table for him and his family.

Folake Yusuf, another beneficiary, said she was very happy to have received the food items and prayed that God would continue to bless the chairman and the council members. 

(NAN)