The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has said that the federal government, through the federal inland revenue (FIRS) has remitted an extra N30 billion to each state governor of the federation to address the soaring cost of living in their respective states.
Akpabio, who spoke during one of the plenary sessions in the Red Chamber, said the funds for the state governors are different from their monthly allocation.
He also made it clear that the funds should be applied specifically to tackle the crisis of insufficient food supplies, cautioning against repurposing them for unrelated endeavors.
According to him, the funds were remitted from FIRS to the state governors.
He said, “We can see a lot of protests here and there, most of those sponsored protests are not aware of the kind of efforts being made by this senate to tackle the situation together with a joint management team of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“I must say that unverified report has it that each of the state governments in the last few months has received an additional N30billion from the Federal Inland Revenue Service, outside their normal allocation from the federation account to assist them in ameliorating the food situation.
“We believed that every state government should utilize the funds so received towards ensuring that food is available.”
Food inflation has become an increasingly worrisome issue in the country as many Nigerians battle with the rising price of food items in the marketplace.
According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s food inflation stands at a staggering 35.41%
Meanwhile, while the government has declared a state of emergency on food security in the country, the prices of food items continue on an upward trajectory.
The president directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to immediately release about 42,000 metric tons of maize, millet, and other commodities from the national strategic reserves.
According to the president, this effort is aimed at crashing the prices of food items in the country.
