Survival fund: Artisans protest in Ondo
Hundreds of Artisans in Ondo State on Thursday staged a protest against alleged diversion of COVI-19 Survival Fund meant for them in the state.
The protesters specifically accused the Chairman of the Ondo State Micro-Credit Agency, Mrs Kosemani Kolawole, who is said to be the coordinator of the survival fund in the state, of inputting names of her church members as artisans into the list of the beneficiaries.
They alleged that only few of their 4,500 members received alerts of 30,000.
Speaking, one of the protesters, Mr Onile Adams, said they were worried how the funds was released to some artisans while others did not get anything, hence the protest.
He said, “We have over 97 associations and we expect each association to get up to 60 per cent of what was sent to them. We did all we were asked to do. We had several meetings and submitted many forms. There was no need to do online registration.
However, Mrs Kolawole said, “I didn’t divert anything to my church members. We are not paying money to artisans. It is the Federal Government that is paying. Monies are being paid directly to those enumerated”.