President Bola Tinubu’s government has ordered the donation of food to the Benue people as widespread hunger and stagflation continue to grind the nation.

 Specifically, the National Emergency Management Agency donated 1,005 metric tons of grains to the Benue government.

During the ceremony on Thursday in Makurdi, NEMA director-general Zubaida Umar said the grains were among the 42,000 metric tons of assorted food commodities from the National Strategic Reserve released by Mr Tinubu.

Ms Umar said the assorted food commodities released included maize, millet, sorghum, and garri.

Ms Umar said after sharing the commodities, Benue got 897MT of maize (17,940 bags of 50kg) and 108MT of garri (4,324 bags of 25kg).

She said the federal government had a sharing template that must be followed, adding that all the local government Areas must receive an equal share of the grains.

Ms Umar said, “Please note that membership of the Committee in each LGA is made up of the chairman of the LGA, the State Emergency Management Agency, a traditional ruler, the Department of State Services, the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.

“Others are the faith-based organisations (JNI & CAN), Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees, Nigerian Red Cross Society, women associations, persons with disability groups, youth associations, principals of boarding schools, civil society organisations and the media.”

The NEMA boss added, “It is worthy of note that based on the allocation table, Benue State has been allocated 897MT of maize (17,940 bags of 50kg) and 1O8MT of garri (4,324 bags of 25kg).

“Also, based on the directives of Mr President, 20 per cent of the food items due for each LGA should be given to religious organizations (JNI & CAN) and 3 per cent to be given to boarding schools in the LGAs.”

Receiving the grains, Governor Hyacinth Alia commended Mr Tinubu for his continuous support for the needy in the country. The governor said that the state government was working assiduously to ensure that Benue would soon feed its citizens and the world.

Mr Alia said his administration was working tirelessly to encourage all Benue people to return to their farmers for improved agricultural produce by supporting them with improved seedlings and farm inputs.

(NAN)