Richard Elesho
As part of its post 11 November 2023, Kogi State governorship election engagements, a civil society organization, Connected Development, CODE, has empowered more than 500 women in the state with cash to improve their livelihoods.
Women from Adavi, Kogi-Koton Karfe, Okehi, and Okene local government areas of Kogi state benefited from the scheme that gulped millions of Naira.
The programme, which was a major aspect of the post election sensitization advocacy to the grassroots, emphasized the need to sustain the existing peace and set an agenda for the incoming administration.
Addressing the beneficiaries in Okene weekend, founder and Chief Executive Officer of the group, Ambassador Hamzat Lawal said the empowerment is a token to appreciate women for coming out en masse to cast their ballots peacefully during the November 11, 2023 off-cycle governorship election.
Lawal, an international election monitor, noted that as a philanthropist he has to complement the effort of the state government in eradicating poverty at the grassroots and urged other spirited individual and corporate organizations to consolidate on what government had been doing to ameliorate the suffering of the less privileged in the state.
“Recently, Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello launched ministry of humanitarian affairs and started with palliative and empowerment programme and I think that as CSO, individual and private sector we should consolidate on what government is doing to eradicate poverty especially at the grassroots.
“This cash empowerment, which is N5,000 per recipient. We targeted 500 people in different wards across the state. We have reached out to 100 vulnerable people in Koton-Karfe at Ohimeyge Igu palace, 200 people at Oboroke in Ihima, 100 beneficiaries at Abuga Ozuja ward in Okengwe and 100 people at Onyi-koko ward in Okene.
“This empowerment is mainly meant for women because they are peace builders and the fabric of the society. I am using this medium to appeal to women to prioritize the education of their children and wards. I am here today because of how much my mother has invested in me through education, and I want every parent to do same,” he said.
Ambassador Lawal also took the post election advocacy to Onoziomi central mosque in Adavi LGA, where he charged Muslims faithful to remain peaceful even in the face of provocation, noting that Islam is a religion of peace.