Kogi NEWMAP compensates 250 erosion victims in Adumu community

The Kogi government, through the Nigeria Erosion Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP), has started paying compensation to over 250 Project Affected Persons (PAP) at Adumu gully erosion sites in Ogugu Local Government Area of the state.

Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mr Edward Onoja, who spoke on behalf of the governor in Ogugu, thanked the people of the community for their patience and endurance.

Onoja reiterated that Bello’s administration had taken the welfare of the people as number one priority, stressing the need for them to give the governor their total support.

He urged the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the money to support their businesses and livelihood, while urging Kogi NEWMAP to kick start the project in earnest.

Earlier, the Project Coordinator of NEWMAP in the state, Mrs Ladi Ahmed-Jato, while handing over the cheques to the beneficiaries, said that the construction would start immediately.

“We are mindful of the fact that after compensation we will move into site immediately, otherwise the people will go back to the area. So, we’ll move to site immediately,” she said.

She added that the people of Adumu community were lucky to benefit from the intervention, saying many other vulnerable communities in the state had been yearning for the same opportunity.

She, therefore, urged the community to cooperate with the contractor that had been mobilized to site for the civil work, noting that all the affected persons were captured by a World Bank certified consultant.

The Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr Sanusi Yahaya, thanked the state government for the payment of its counterpart fund of N900 million for erosion control in the state.

The traditional ruler (Eje) of Olamaboro, Chief Simon Ujah, thanked the state government, World Bank and NEWMAP for bringing the community to limelight adding that the project will save it from the reosion menace.

Mrs Rachael Adejoh, who spoke on behalf of the beneficiaries, thanked the state government and NEWMAP for fulfilling their promise, assuring that they would utilise the money given to them judiciously.