The Federal Government has provided 600 bags of rice and 200 bags of maize to the Muslim community in the six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory.
Alhaji Rabiu Mohammed, the chairman of the FCT chapter of Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), confirmed this while handing over the food items to the leadership of the Committee of FCT Imams Initiative on Thursday in Abuja.
He explained that the palliative was meant to cushion the impact of the removal of petroleum subsidy by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
“The Federal Government gave us 600 bags of (50kg) rice and 200 bags of maize, which we are handing over to the Chairman of the Committee of the FCT Imams Initiative, Sheikh Tajudeen Adigun.
“On behalf of the Federal Government, the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) has decided to hand over the items for distribution to the people here in the FCT,” said Mohammed.
He stated that the Committee of Imams is a component of JNI, which is an umbrella body of all Muslim organisations in the country.
According to him: “The committee of Imams has the structures to reach out to the target beneficiaries across the nooks and crannies of the territory. On behalf of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), I wish to hand over the items to the chairman of the FCT Committee of Imams so that they can start distribution of the palliatives to the nooks and crannies of the territory.”
Receiving the foodstuff, Adigun said the committee had agreed to share 80 bags of rice and 30 bags of maize to each area council of the territory.
He stated that other organisations, like the Jama’atu Nasral Da’awah and Muslim Community Centre, are also going to have their share of the food items.
Affirming that some food items will go to the imams who are poor, he said: “You can see the trucks have started loading, and the imams of each of the area councils are here and their representatives who are going to follow these trucks to their Juma’at mosques. By Zuhr, people are there waiting for them; from this point [it goes] to the point of distribution, and it will be distributed in the presence of emirs of those area councils.”
The cleric commended the Federal Government for the palliatives, noting that Islam encouraged Muslims to always appreciate no matter what little gesture was done to them.
“We thank the Federal Government for the effort. Nigeria is a big country. We are 200 million and over. I think what will cushion the impact of hardship in Nigeria will be a long way away, but we always appreciate the little the government is doing. And we are encouraging them to do more,” Adigun said.
