The spokesman of the House of Representatives, Hon Akin Rotimi jnr has expressed worry over the absence of financial institutions in his Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti due to insecurity.
The lawmaker who represents the Ikole/Oye federal constituency in the green chamber explained that the situation has affected the social and economic activities in the area.
Rotimi spoke while presenting palliatives and cash to no fewer than 5,000 constituents in Oye and Ikole-Ekiti making up the constituency, noting that he is determined to offer the people quality and responsive representation.
He emphasised the need for security agencies to live up to their responsibilities of protecting the lives and property of the citizens, assuring the people that everything possible would be done to bring back banks to the area.
According to him, “Generally the rate of insecurity has reduced because of ongoing efforts, we will continue to try, but for me, we are still very far from what we want to achieve.
“As of today, there is no single bank operating in Ikole LGA and that is very problematic, in the whole of Ikole Ekiti, we don’t have one bank operating because of the state of insecurity and this is something that needs to be corrected and once again we need to make efforts to ensure financial institution returns to Ikole.”
He revealed the palliatives which were facilitated by the federal ministry of Agriculture to ensure food security in line with the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu and the 10th House of Representatives for the masses.
“We have two different phases; the first phase is here in Ikole, with 2000 bags of rice, and other foodstuffs while the second phase will be happening in Oye, with 1,000 bags of rice. In addition to that, we are relatively distributing about 20 million naira.
“All stakeholders are here; nobody is taking it by proxy. There is also a major of accountability we are keeping here. Various stakeholders are here by themselves. This goes a long way in deepening accountability and participatory governance.
“We are trying as much as possible to make it participatory and encompassing of people of different tribes and faiths; my electoral victory is the collective effort of all,” he said.
On the efforts of President Tinubu in addressing the biting economic challenges, the lawmaker said, “The President said in his speech that the central focus is human capital development, to give Nigerians the power, infrastructure and access to capital.
“Nigerians have to live beyond handouts and palliative measures to have a sustainable development, which is why the 2024 budget addresses many of these issues.”
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