The Sokoto State Zakkat and Endowment Commission on Tuesday offered free feeding and medical assistance to 200 indigent elderly persons in Gwadabawa local government area of the state.
The Commission chairman, Lawal Maidoki who disclosed this, said the programme was initiated by the Sokoto State Government to support the needy across the 86 districts of the state.
Mr Maidoki said that the gesture was part of government efforts to cater for the less-privileged persons to improve their standard of living.
He said that the elderly persons always deserve concern and attention, and called on wealthy individuals and groups to support the initiative.
“We are committed to reciprocate the contributions of the elderly to the society and this will be done through engaging our resources to make them happy,” Mr Maidoki said.
The chairman added that the programme was one of the obligatory assignments to be executed by the commission to ease the suffering of the less-privileged in the society.
“We will continue to collaborate with all relevant authorities to support the life of the people and enable us sustain the gesture and expand it to cover all indigent elderly persons across the state,” he said.
According to Mr Maidoki, the 200 beneficiaries were selected from Gwadabawa and Kware local government areas and each was served food, and presented with N5, 000 cash, mats and clothing material.
In his address, Governor Aminu Tambuwal, represented by the state Commissioner for Religious Affairs, Abdullahi Maigwandu, commended the commission for its interventions in reducing hardship among the populace.
“We have since realised the importance of all programmes in Zakkat and Endowment Commission, as it has yielded fruitful results in the development of our state.
“Moreover, the state government will continue to initiate and support more of such programmes, as it serves as an opportunity to manifest the desire of the present administration,” Mr Tambuwal said.
Earlier the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, commended the state government and the Zakkat commission for sustaining the programme.
Mr Abubakar represented by the District Head of Wamakko, Salihu Barade, called on wealthy individuals to emulate the gesture, by contributing to ease people suffering in the society.
The monarch further called on the elderly persons to always pray for the success of leaders and the society at large.
The District Head of Gwadabawa, Lawal Zayyana, said that supporting elderly persons in the society can never be over emphasized.
Mr Zayyana said the gesture was highly commendable, as it would go a long way in ameolerating the suffering of the elderly persons in the society.
NAN recalled that the commission had in October 2017 under the same programme offered free feeding and medical assistance to 500 elderly persons in the state.
NAN
