…sets-up food banks for vulnerable residents

By Olasunkanmi Akoni

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Wednesday, announced measures to cushion the effects of the current scarcity of currency occasioned by Central Bank of Nigeria, naira swap and seemingly artificial fuel scarcity in the state.

Sanwo-Olu, made the announcement during a state-wide broadcast on the State of the Nation, held at Lagos House, Marina.

The governor, who commended residents for keeping calm even in the face of “unfortunate hardship” due to the scarcity and resilience, explained that measures became necessary to ameliorate the situation among vulnerable in the state.

Some of the measures taken to cushion the effects include: The suspension of on-going construction of roads along tank farms at Ijegun-Egba area to allow for seamless movenent of petroleum tankers for easy distribution of products.

Also, directed gas stations to operate on 24 hours with adequate security protection with the view to record remarkable improvement in fuel distribution to reduce long queues and the usual rush at the stations.

Also, with the effect from Thursday, all public transportation in the state including Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, LagRide, LagFerry, LAST-MILE, among others, have been directed to charge 50 pet cent of current fares from passengers through the use of cowrie card.

The setting up of food banks across some identified locations for distribution of food items to vulnerable which would be distributed through leaders of Community Development Associations, CDAs, religious bodies, ethnic groups, among others.