Alhaji Mohammed Musa, the State Chairman of RTEAN, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos that association members were overwhelmed by the gift.

Musa said that the government had also promised to send the same number of bags of rice to the association.

The RTEAN chief said the bags of garri would be distributed on Monday to the association members across the state.

“We thank God for this kind gesture from the Lagos State Government, especially the Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

“We will continue to be loyal to his government. At least, this will go a very long way to cushion the hardship on members whose source of livelihood had been put on hold by the lockdown since March 30,” he said.

According to him, the palliatives will be distributed to various zones, chapels and units of the union to guard against overcrowding during the distribution.

He said that the union had on Thursday distributed 500 bags of rice to its members and given the sum of N10,000 each to no fewer than 500 members to cushion the effect of the stay-at-home directive.

Musa said that the association also extended the palliatives and financial support to the needy who besieged its secretariat seeking for help.

According to him, the union has not relented in educating its members on precautionary measures to prevent contracting and spreading the COVID-19.

NAN reports that the 25kg bags of garri had on them the inscription  “Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, National Strategic Food Reserve Programme”. (NAN)