Date: 2020-05-03

About 30,000 households, including members of the Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church, Ilorin, Kwara State, Muslim community and market women have benefitted from relief materials donated by a foundation in the church to cushion the effect of COVID-19 on the people.

Speaking to newsmen during the presentation in Ilorin, the supervising pastor of the church who is also the executive secretary of Oluwole Foundation of the church, Pastor Demola Popoola, said the foundation had spent over N100 million on the relief materials.

"Because of the lockdown in the country, the foundation has gone ahead to give palliative materials to members of our church and the larger community of Ilorin. "What we have given out are 10kg bag of rice and 5kg bag of semovita to each of the beneficiaries with additional N500 as transportation fare. That is the second phase of the palliative.

"At the commencement of the lockdown in the state, the foundation gave out a sum of N5,000 each to 3,000 people. The extension of the lockdown necessitated the second phase of the palliative measures.

"My advice to religious leaders and organizations is that this is the time to give back to the community. Therefore, I urge politicians, the well-to-do in the society and captains of industry to find a way of assisting the needy in our midst to complement what the government is doing", he said.

Popoola, who also cautioned governments at all levels against the slashing of salaries in the country as a result of COVID-19 disease, said it "will be inhuman to cut the salaries of civil servants in the aftermath of the pandemic".

"Governnents can cut the salaries of political appointees because they earn fat salaries that are 100 per cent higher than those of the civil servants. Many states have not even started paying the N30,000 minimum wage. What I am saying is that government should even look into adding of salaries of civil servants for two months after COVID-19.

"What we have on our hands is that after COVID-19 pandemic, corruption will be on the increase as many of the civil servants who live on loans and cooperative will be tempted to steal from government coffers.

"While thinking about the masses in town, government should find a way of making the civil servants happy", he said.