Noah Ebije, Kaduna.
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El Rufai has promised that district and village heads in the state would be given security allowance to enable them discharge their responsibilities of gathering intelligence that will help in stemming crime and insecurity.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting at the Trade Fair Complex at the weekend, the governor said that the Ministry of Local Government Affairs will soon come up with a template for the payment of the proposed allowance.
El Rufai said that the proposed template would only spell out the minimum amount to be paid to district, village and ward heads as security allowance, adding that buoyant local governments can even pay higher.
‘’When we assumed office, we found out that what local governments were paying district and village heads was nothing to write home about. In fact, Ward Heads were not paid anything. In some local governments, district and village heads had not been paid for several months because of lack of funds, ‘’ he recalled.
El Rufai said that the proposed security allowance will enable village and ward heads to keep tabs of happenaings in their locality, so much that they can monitor the activities of criminal elements and report to security agents.
‘’A ward head is better placed to know which household has a new born child. This will ease vaccination and the collation of other demographics. The task is huge and it requires resources to carry out. That is why we want to introduce the security allowance,’’ he added.