The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), through its NGO –Mission for Education, Socials and Health (MESH), today Saturday distributed palliatives to the indigents residing in the Federal Capital Territory.
The palliatives became imperative to cushion the effect of the lockdown due to the Coronavius pandemic (Covid-19) on the indigents residing in the FCT.
The palliative comprised of food items such as rice, beans, garri, groundnut oil, sugar, salt and hand washing soap.
The targeted recipients include the widows, the aged, people with special needs as well as the unemployed in the FCT.
The gesture according to NSCIA was to compliment the efforts being put in place by the Committee of FCT Imams Initiatives to provide for the needy in this trying period.
NSCIA also used the occasion to call on all well-to-do Nigerians in general and Muslims in particular to support the “Muslim Coalition Against COVID-19” which is a conglomerate of about 45 Islamic Organisation being coordinated by Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC).
MESH Program Officer, Mrs Oladejo Khadijat said Mpape was chosen because it was one of the rural communities of the FCT where the NSCIA and MESH had carried out many outreach programs.
“We therefore feel we should not forget them in this trying moment that government has said people should stay at home in order to stop the spread of coronavirus. We all know that many families in Nigeria depend on daily earnings. When they can’t go out on daily basis to work, there is the problem of hunger,” she explained.
One of the recipients, Musa, who received the items on behalf of his aged parents thanked the NSCIA and MESH for the gesture.
Speaking with journalists during the visit to Mpape, NSCIA Director of Administration, Ustaz Yusuf Chinedozi Nwoha said beneficiaries were based on their economic status irrespective of their religious leanings.
He appealed to well-to-do Nigerians in general and Muslims in particular to support the Muslim Coalition Against COVID-19 which is raising N500 million to mitigate the effects, on the poor masses, of the coronavirus restriction order issued by governments.
Notable among the organisations that form the coalition are: Federation of Muslim Women Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN), Islamic Medical Association of Nigeria (IMAN), Nasrul-Lahi-L-Fatih Society of Nigeria (NASFAT), Muslim Media Practitioners of Nigeria (MMPN) and the National Council of Muslim Youth Organisations (NACOMYO), among others.
The coalition can be reached through MPAC’s Director of Media and Strategic Communication on 09099996722 or at [email protected].
The Council equally enjoined the Nigerian Ummah to continue to be law abiding and obey the directives of government and health authorities.
