Coronavirus: Yobe targets 18,000 vulnerable households for food distribution – Official

Mr Goje, who spoke with journalists in Damaturu, said his agency has already commenced the upgrade of existing data to capture people who are vulnerable in the communities so as to deliver the palliatives during the Ramadan and in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

“As an emergency agency, we have the mandate of His Excellency Gov. Mai Mala Buni to take the plight of the vulnerable seriously,” Mr Goje said.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ramadan approaching, we are aware that these categories of people will face a lot of problems and so we have to update our data to capture them for easy direct distribution of the relief materials which we already have on ground.”

He said the distribution of the relief material would also target displaced people in host communities across the state, “while the other vulnerable groups will be reached through their representatives either at the local government, members of the state assembly in their areas or religious leaders as well as traditional rulers.”

According to YOSEMA boss, his agency has put in place “a very tight monitoring team comprising of security and the press to ensure the items handed over to such representatives are not diverted for their personal use”.

“We have a very tight and secured monitoring team. One of the things that our governor is concerned is for these items to reach to the people they are meant for so we don’t take that for granted. What we do is to collect the list of the vulnerable people and their contacts and follow up to ensure that those items distributed get to them. We also use the security and the press to ensure openness and accountability in what we do,” Mr Goje explained.

Mr Goje also announced that the Victims Support Funds (VSF) had sent in its support of medical consumables and food relief for the state as part of its contribution.

He added the materials will be handed over to the state COVID-19 committee for distribution.