The senator representing Gombe Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Muhammad Danjuma Goje, Wednesday distributed relief materials and empowerment tools worth millions of naira to thousands of People Living with Disabilities (PLWDs) in Gombe State.
Presenting the items on behalf of the senator, former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Abubakar Sadiq Kurba, said the food items were distributed to the physically challenged to cushion the harsh economic situation.
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He added that the empowerment tools were meant to empower those categories of persons across the 11 local government areas of the state to make them self-reliant.
Sadiq Kurba said Senator Goje targeted people with disabilities because they represented the most vulnerable group in the society in order to alleviate their sufferings.
He, therefore, commended the senator for providing the assistance and called on them to judiciously share the items among their members.
The Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) supervised the distribution of the items as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Representative of NIMASA, Abdullahi Yelwa Salihu, said the items and materials were distributed through the agency under Senator Goje’s constituency project.
He said the agency was able to support thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), PLWDs and other vulnerable groups across the country through the support of the senator.
He said the support included food items as palliatives and skill acquisition in order to make them self-reliant.
Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Chairman of the PLWDs in Gombe, Comrade Umar Ali Goro, commended Senator Goje for the kind gesture.
He, therefore, called on the senator and other members of the public to give them employment opportunities.
“We also seek the establishment of a special centre to empower our members with vocational skills for us to fend for ourselves,” he added.
Our correspondent reports that the items included tricycles, grinding machines, pumping machine for irrigation, clippers, bags of assorted grains, noodles, groundnuts oil and mattresses among others.