TheCable

The federal governments says members of the presidential task force committee on the COVID-19, do not receive N500,000 sitting allowance.

Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, Lai Mohammed, minister of information, said no member of the committee has ever been paid any allowance.

He said rumour peddlers were distracting the fight against COVID-19 with fake news.

“The truth of the matter is that no member of the committee has ever received a penny whether for sitting or sleeping allowance,” he said.

“This fake news is aimed at distracting the government from the most serious problem of containing and combatting fake news.

“I want to say loud and clear that no member of the committee receives a penny as sitting allowance. Every body sacrifices his time, energy and even sometimes resources.”

Buttressing Mohammed’s point, Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation (SGF)  who is chairman of the task force, said: “I saw the post where somebody was alleging that the federal government has withdrawn $150m out of which they are paying the committee members of the task force N500,000 daily as sitting allowance.

“Let me say that as the chairman of this committee, we have not received a dime by way of even operational cost talk less of sitting allowances.

“And like I said, sitting allowances are matters of regulations and they are there in the public service rules and regulations. It would be applied when the need arises and when funds are available.”