Ebonyi State Governor Francis Nwifuru has disbursed N200,000 each as financial assistance to about 800 indigenes of Ebonyi State who were evacuated back to Ebonyi State from the Ilaje Otumara village demolition exercise by the Lagos State government.
The victims mostly women and children who were repatriated back about four weeks ago by the state government expressed reliefs from the benevolence of the governor.
Some of the victims who expressed sadness over the destruction of their property noted that they were still asleep at about 4am when the Lagos State government came in with their equipment and began demolishing their homes.
Narrating their ordeal, one of them, Mrs Charity Okeosisi stated that while they were busy bringing out some of their property from the house, area boys who accompanied the team were busy looting their property.
She described their experience as painful and agonising adding that many of them lost all they had laboured for in life. She lamented that they have been forced to start life all over again on arrival in Ebonyi State.
Mrs Okeosisi who gave a sigh of relief following the disbursement of the funds by the governor, noted that weeks after the Ebonyi State government evacuated them back to Ebonyi State, they have been living from hand to mouth as there was nothing left for them to depend on.
Another beneficiary, Mrs Martina Ofoke, expressed delight that the governor heard their cry and promptly intervened on their behalf pointing out that the financial assistance by the State Government would go a long way in helping them put food on their tables.
Other victims commended the governor for the kind gesture, expressing the optimism that the state would also empower them to startup businesses in the state as they have no other place to go.
They maintained that a good number of other indigenes of other states were still stranded in Lagos adding that abandoning them to their fate might result to an increased crime rate in the area.
Shortly after handing over the cheques to the victims, the state commissioner for Special Duties and the focal person, Ebonyi State Diaspora office, Mr Valentine Okike-Uzo noted that this is one of the measures the state government deployed to cushion the hardship faced by the victims repatriated back to the state.
Okike-Uzo assured that the about 800 victims who were properly documented would all receive the N200,000 financial assistance of the state government, urging them to effectively utilise the token in meaningful ventures.
He assured the victims that the state government would also come up with more intervention programmes that would help in resettling them and urged them to remain good citizens of the state while they reside in their different localities.
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