Senator Danjuma Goje claims that no single person has benefited from the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programmes (SIPs) in Gombe State was flawed today as 548 N-Power beneficiaries comes from his constituency.
Beneficiaries of the scheme from across the 11 local governments of the state met at the Education Resources Centre in Gombe.
Dismissing Goje’s claims, the N-Power beneficiaries described Senator Goje’s comment as “unbecoming and a disservice to the people of the state.”
The senator who is a former governor of Gombe recently called for the scrapping of the N-Power scheme because “no single person from Gombe State benefited from the programme”.
The N-Power beneficiaries numbering about 2, 900, through their representative, Mohammed Wakili, N-Power Ambassador, insisted that Goje’s claim was completely inconsistent with the true situation on the ground.
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“To set the records straight, Gombe State has 2, 900 persons currently benefiting from the N-Power initiative,” Wakili told TheSun.
“Also, a total of 21000 persons applied for the second batch of the 2017 programme, 8, 251 were preselected out of which 7, 300 were verified and sent to the National office and if the 2018 budget is not approved the fate of this persons will be uncertain,” he added.
Wakili gave a breakdown of the beneficiaries from Gombe State to include 548 from Gombe Central, 594 from Gombe South and 1, 692 from Gombe North.
“Our findings revealed that out of the over 446 beneficiaries from Akko Local Government Area, about 30 percent are from Goje’s electoral ward. Also, some secondary schools in Kashere (Goje’s hometown) are currently enjoying the SIPs schools feeding programme,” he said.
The N-Power beneficiaries urged him to find ways of confirming and sustaining the appointments of N-Power beneficiaries as well as other SIPs programmes based on their impact.
While calling on the Federal Government to not only sustain the programme but also work towards securing the beneficiaries permanent employment, the N-Power beneficiaries decried the call by Goje for the scrapping of the SIPs.
