The Chairman, Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State, Mr Ifeanyi Agu, says the council has set up a Coronavirus (COVID-19) Relief Fund to support indigent families in the area.
Agu said this while briefing newsmen on what the council had done to cushion the effect of the lockdown on the less privileged.
He also said that the council had supported no fewer than 3,040 households in the 38 autonomous communities in the council.
The chairman said that the COVID-19 protocol and safety response had so altered the way of life of the people such that most families were finding it difficult to feed.
He said that the relief fund became necessary to lift such burden from the most vulnerable of such families.
“We equally set up a steering committee that will manage all funds and material gifts that come into the coffers.
“Our expectation is that all politicians irrespective of party divide and well-to-do personalities from our council and beyond will contribute to the fund to enable us to alleviate the sufferings of the people,” he said.
Agu said that the response had been encouraging as a good number of federal and state legislators had contributed to the pool.
He said that the state government supported the council to produce 15,000 facemasks that would be distributed to the people of the area in the first instance.
“We also got some bags of rice and beans, detergents, soap, powder from the state government,” he said.
He said that the council had done phases one and two of palliative distribution, adding that non-natives, including the Hausa community in the area benefitted.
Agu said that no fewer than 270 physically challenged persons also benefitted from the gesture.
“The crusade against COVID-19 is a collective one. Let us raise the level of our personal hygiene to be free of it,” he said.
