Npower Beneficiaries Cry Out To Buhari, Accuse Minister Of Deliberate Non-payment of March Stipend

By OsunReporters
Despite the coronavirus Pandemics’ lockdown and Easter period, N-power Volunteers Across the Nation has cried out to President Muhammadu Buhari to beg Mrs. Sadiya Umar Farouq to pay their March Stipends to enable them feed their family members.

Since the programme was transferred from the office of the Vice President Yemi Osibanjo, to a new ministry, Humanitarian Affairs and disaster management, this delay has become more unbearable for N-power beneficiaries across Nigeria.

Excuses giving by the minister in charge, Mrs. Sadiya Umar Farouq for the delays since October last year are no more tenable to volunteers as of today, April 10th, 2020 while N-power beneficiaries are yet to be paid their March stipends, especially when Nigerians asked to obey the stay at home order to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.

Some of the reactions from volunteers through telephone interview with OSUNREPORTERS NEWS and online platform said, “We are at this moment appealing to the honorable minister to pay us our March 2020 stipend or resign from the ministry if she can no longer do the needful as at when due. 2017 sets of volunteer devices has not been given, and nothing has been said about it yet. Increment in stipends  2016 veterans have served for long now and still earning stipends of 30,000 naira which cannot buy much today in our today’s markets.

“We demand N-power sustainability, permanency of volunteers after graduation from the training, and upward review of their salary instead of stipends as obtainable by other graduates in other ministries,” beneficiary thankful and call President Buhari and his Vice for sustainability of the programme.

Another volunteer explained; “As of today, April 10, 2020, which is good Friday, no march stipends have been paid yet, meaning we are gonna stay hungry during this Easter celebration. This is wickedness and we can’t take it any more,” he said.

In another expression by a Lagos State N-power beneficiary, she explained as follows: “All the minister’s incompetence and endless excuses for the delayed stipends are no longer acceptable to all of us 500 000 volunteers across the Nation. We plead with her to have a fear of God and treat us as a sincere mother to her children or respectfully resign if she can’t manage the ministry anymore,” she lamented.