No fewer than 111 cooks under the Federal Government’s National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), will be disengaged in Kogi for violating national guidelines of the programme.
Mr. Suleiman Abdulkareem Onyekehi, the NSIP Focal Person, Kogi, disclosed this on the sideline of the ”Nationwide Documentation cans Training of Cooks on the NHGSFP”, held on Thursday in Lokoja.
The NHGSFP is one of the components of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) under the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (FMHADMSD).
Onyekehi said, ”We have national guidelines that we will not want to violate or default.
”If anyone is defaulting or violating the guidelines, the state government will not hesitate to take a disciplinary action against such person.
”We have gotten a report with concrete evidences against some cooks who are defaulting by receiving money and not doing the cooking for the pupils.
”We have identified those schools and out of the 3000 cooks, 111 are defaulting.
”We are still going to identify more defaulters, so that we can discipline them as deterrent to others who are violating the national guidelines,” he said.
Onyekehi, who doubles as the Special Adviser to the Governor on Special Projects, said the state had reported the defaulters to the national office in charge of payment and data.
”Some cooks changed location and not cooking for pupils, we have few cases of dead persons who are still receiving money and some collected money and did not just cook.
‘So, we have sent our report on those cases to national office for defaulters to be removed and we have also sent replacement for them.
”It is only those who know the value of the program and are willing to work and follow the guidelines that will be retained, and that is part of the compliance of the national guidelines,” he said.
He noted that over 177,000 pupils are currently being fed in public primary schools across the state, while a total of over 258,000 pupils had been revalidated by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for the program.
He added that the NSIP had great positive impacts on the lives of the people and the had tremendously boosted the state’s economy.
He emphasised that the NHGSFP was achieving its goals objectives in Kogi, which is to increase children enrollment in public schools, nutritional value and poverty eradication.
He commended Gov. Yahaya Bello for his maximum supporting for all the components of NSIP in state, while thanking President Muhammadu Buhari for the initiative.
NAN
