In yet another massive intervention, the Aliko
Dangote Foundation on Monday officially launched a major philanthropic
programme in Zamfara State, where he doled out food items running into several
millions of naira to support victims of insurgency.
According to official reports, over 3,000 people
have been killed, about 100,000 displaced of which about 30,000 are in Maradun
council area and over 500 people kidnapped.
Group Executive Director of Government and
Strategic Relations, Dangote Group, Mansur Ahmed, who presented the food items
on behalf of the Group President, Aliko Dangote, said the Foundation was
supporting the government and traditional leaders in meeting the needs of the
IDPs.
Ahmed said Dangote Foundation had also injected
over N7billion to create succour in Northeast in the wake of the Boko Haram
insurgency.
He said Dangote was very disturbed about the plight
of the displaced persons and quickly directed that everything possible be done
to provide succour.
Ahmed said the company was building a 200000-ton
capacity of rice mill in Maradun and that when completed this year, it would
create hundreds of job opportunities for the people of Zamfara State.
While responding to the kind gesture of the group,
the Emir of Maradun, Muhammad Garba Tambari, said he was highly elated as the
company is the first to intervene by providing food support for displaced
persons.
He commended Dangote for the gesture and promised
to help secure his investment in his Emirate.
Also, Chairman of the Maradun Local Government Area,
Alhaji Yahayah Shehu Maradun, thanked Dangote Foundation for the gesture, and
pray God to continue to bless Dangote’s business.
However, some eyewitnesses sighted trucks of food
items being offloaded at the silos and at the official presentation of the
relief material at the Palace of the Emir of Maradun.
Some of the items delivered included truck load of
Semolina, spaghetti, sugar, wheat meal and macroni.
Meanwhile, victims at the IDP camp at the
presentation who recounted their ordeal described the crisis as the worst in
the country in the past five years.
They regretted that state have been neglected by the
government and mainstream media.
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