The lawmaker representing Surulere Constituency 1 at the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Desmond Olusola Elliot has harped on his resolve to keep up with continued fulfillment of a pledge he initially instituted with constituents, to always put their welfare first motivated him to empower them with various items and programmes.
Speaking on Wednesday while giving out five LAGRIDE cars, 200 POS machines and providing health insurance scheme for 400 senior citizens and 100 youths, Elliot said that he has always been passionate about giving back to his people and contributing his own quota to what would alleviate poverty.
On the LAGRIDE cars, he revealed that five were given out from the nine provided for the people with an initial payment made on behalf of the beneficiaries, who he said would start making the rest payments, when they eventually start operating the cabs.
On how the beneficiaries for the cabs were chosen, he said that it was thrown open and that various people were involved in the selection process.
“We want to make sure that our members are taken care of. We paid initial deposit, but they will start paying the rest, when they begin operation.
“We are also doing health insurance programme that we started last year. This time around, we are providing more for the elders on arthritis, high blood pressure, and all kinds of ailments. We have 400 elders and 100 youths in the first phase.
“I have also partnered with Ecobank to give provide 200 POS machines for the people and each account will have N20,000 as start-up. We are partnering with an NGO for the health insurance. I am starting with the elders so that they can get good healthcare with physiotherapy and all forms of care,” he said.
The actor-turned-politician however, said that the gesture was not motivated by politics or elections, saying that it is their job to take care of the people.
The lawmaker commended the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, who is from the area and who he said has done so much that made it a lot easier for him to do what he doing.
He said: “it is something almost an abnormally for something not to happen every month in Surulere as far as representation is concerned, especially with what Speaker Gbajabiamila has done on Infrastructure and human capacity development, ours is to just do what we can do.”
In his speech at the event, the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Surulere Local Government, Hon. Fuad Kayode Laguda, said that the programme was not the first from Hon. Desmond Elliot and that it would not be the last.
Hon. Kayode emphasised that Hon. Elliot would be elected to serve for the third term, and that he is prepared to meet with others at the polls in March 2023.
“Desmond Olusola Elliot would be returned to the Assembly in 2023.He has been doing this and some of the programmes are continuous,” he said, adding that he has been providing good representation for the people.
Also speaking at the event, the Chairman of Surulere Local Government, Hon. Sulaiman Bamidele Yusuf, said that the programme coincided with the monthly general meeting of the APC in the local government.
“Today is another empowerment programme by Hon. Desmond Olusola Elliot to say thank you for what the people have done for him for electing him for second term.
“We are doing another empowerment programme on November 7 and we will sensitise the people about PVC collection and the need to go out to vote in 2023 during the event.
“On our part, we have so many programmes such as road construction, our secretariat is also there, we are also building a legislative complex.
“The secretariat is 95% completed, we have completed two roads, while three are ongoing. We have a mini stadium to get our youths away from the streets.
“We have also partnered with some of our entertainment people in Surulere to ensure that our people are gainfully employed. All the political office holders are coming together to take care of the people,” he said.