About six thousand vulnerable residents of three wards in Maiduguri have received varieties of food items through a state-wide palliative by the Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum.

The distribution, which kicked off at Customs-House Internally Displaced Persons, (IDP) camp in Muna, Jere Local Government Area a week ago, has now shifted to densely populated wards of Gwange I, II, and III, this weekend.

About 2,000 residents of Gwange III ward were reached on Saturday, during a distribution that was attended by Governor Zulum while applying COVID-19 prevention steps.

The residents of Gwange I and II wards that are 4,000 in number received theirs on Friday afternoon. Food items to cover more wards, include Bags of rice, Semovita, gallons of cooking oil, cartons of spaghetti and some condiments were given to the beneficiaries.

Governor Zulum had on April 24, constituted a 17-member committee to distribute palliatives, mostly food items, to cushion the social effect of the 14-day state-wide lockdown.

The lockdown was imposed by the Governor Zulum on April 22, to control the spread of Coronavirus.

Governor Zulum had charged the Committee, chaired by the Commissioner of Agriculture, Mr. Bukar Talba, with the Chairperson of the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, Hajja Yabawa Kolo, as secretary, to transparently identify persons in urgent need of government intervention.

Consequently to enhance transparency, the Governor included representatives of intelligence and security agencies, religious leaders, women and the media.

By Dominica Nwabufo