Grants: Ebonyi set to sanction stakeholders extorting beneficiaries

The Ebonyi State government said it will sanction stakeholders who extort money from beneficiaries of its empowerment grants.
The Director-General of the state Small and Medium-Enterprises Development Agency, Dr Stephen Odo, made the declaration on Friday, in Abakaliki.
Odo, in a statement, said the government has observed with displeasure, the attitude of some community leaders, town union executives, influential leaders of different unions in Lagos, Abuja, among other places, towards the grant beneficiaries.
Following the removal of fuel subsidy, the Ebonyi government decided to give N2 million each to 1,500 indigenes across the country, all of them doing menial jobs.
“The government entrusted the responsibility of identifying beneficiaries of the N2 million empowerment grant to these stakeholders.
“They have, instead, resorted to extortion, leaving a small percentage of the grant to the beneficiaries,” the statement read.
Odo said that Governor Francis Nwifuru has frowned at the development and regards it as an act of intimidation, harassment and fraud.
The statement:“The governor sees it as sabotage of his government’s well-intended economic policy and anyone found culpable would be meted with strict sanctions.
“The government reiterates that the empowerment grants are for the beneficiaries’ personal business ventures and economic development.”
“The grant is not for community unions’ interest,” saying “beneficiaries so extorted must have been cheated”.
The DG said that the Governor has directed such stakeholders, who should best be described as enemies of progress, to forthwith desist from such unwholesome act.
The statement indicated: “All beneficiaries under such pressure and intimidation are directed to provide details of these stakeholders.
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“They should forward the details to the following phone numbers: 08036794591, 08052509400, and 08037791890.
“The beneficiaries are assured that the government would protect them and their businesses while ensuring that the offending stakeholders face the wrath of the law”.