As Nigerians battle to come to terms with last week’s sudden hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit otherwise called petrol, the former Speaker of the Imo state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Benjamin Uwajumogu has identified with his people of Okigwe zone, saying that he shares in their pain.
This is even as he vowed to work with the leadership his party the All Progressive congress (APC), and the APC led state and the federal governments to attract a sizeable chunk of the palliatives provided by the federal government to cushion the adverse effect of the price hike on Nigerians.
Fielding questions from journalists at Abuja Airport on his way to South Africa, Uwajumogu also dismissed insinuations that the APC led federal governments did not provide palliatives before the removal of petrol subsidy.
The former Speaker and the APC Candidate in the botched Imo North senatorial rerun election, said the APC led federal government, in a proactive move to lessen the adverse effect of the new price, earmarked N500 billion in the 2016 budget for social welfare.
Speaking further, he maintained that the federal government drew up a palliative program before the increment, that will directly cushion the adverse effect of the subsidy removal, while impacting on eight million Nigerians in different social investment spending that would provide succour and become a ready-made palliative to ordinary Nigerians.
While listing some the palliatives to include; payment of 5000 monthly stipend to one million Nigerians; provision of soft loans for market women, men and traders, including artisans and farmers, without the requirement of conventional collateral; payment of between N23, 000 to 30,000 per month stipend to 500,000 unemployed graduates who would be trained, paid and deployed to work as volunteer teachers, public health officers and extension service workers among other responsibilities, Uwajumogu assured that he would take the advantage of his membership of the ruling APC to insist that Okigwe zone gets it fair share of the federal government palliatives.
Apprising the gains of the present democratic dispensation, Uwajumogu enunciated that the payment of contractors handling the second Niger bridge, the Lagos-Calabar rail project and the Enugu-Onitsha express road that has killed so many Southeasterners, as well as, the citing of an NNPC petroleum tank farm and the inclusion of a Housing estate project, renovation of one health center in every electoral wards in the state and many other projects that was included in the 2016 budget, by the current administration, are clear pointers that the APC administration will favour Ndi Igbo.
While commending petroleum marketers who has already reduced petrol prices in their stations to about N115, Uwajumogu further urged the NNPC, relevant government agencies and petroleum marketers charged with the responsibility of regulating the pricing and marketing of petroleum products to double their efforts in order to make the product available to Nigerians and as well, end the petrol palaver once and for all, in the interest of Nigerians.
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