FCT Minister, Wike Hints On ‘Best’ Palliative For Abuja Residents

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Nyesom Wike, has said that the FCT Administration is considering the best palliative to give residents in the nation’s capital city to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal.

Naija News reports that the Federal Government had in early August announced ₦5 billion palliative for each state of the federation, including the FCT, to cushion the impact of the removal of subsidy on the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), better known as petrol or fuel.

Some of the state governments have since commenced the distribution of the palliative, having received ₦2 billion in cash and some food items while still awaiting ₦3 billion balance.

Speaking, however, after a closed-door meeting with contractors handling different projects in the FCT yesterday, Wike said the FCTA might consider transportation and food supplies support with the ₦5 billion palliative received from the Federal Government.

The Minister, though, noted that the FCT was not included in the ₦5 billion palliative until he wrote a memo informing President Bola Tinubu of the development.

Wike said President Tinubu has since approved the amount, adding that other states have received ₦2 billion already, expressing confidence that the FCT will equally receive soon.

“But we are yet to decide on what to do with the ₦2 billion palliative. We have not chosen any area yet.

“Are we going to concentrate on food, but we are thinking that the issue of transportation is very, very important, particularly the urban mass transit.

“People would like to have easy transportation to go to where they want to go, and if you give them rice and they eat the rice today, what about transportation tomorrow?

“So, we have not come up with what actually we are going to use the money for, but I believe food support and transportation is very key,” Daily Post quoted the FCT Minister saying.