From INIOBONG SUNDAY, UYO
The distraught residents of Akwa Ibom State hard – hit by the prevailing socio-economic challenges have continued to groan, despite hunger alleviation programmes by the federal and State governments.
Checks by our Correspondent revealed that the palliative system as a stop-gap measure to cushion the excruciating pains on the people, especially the very poor, appears to have failed as complaints continue to trail the exercise that the scheme has been hijacked and diverted from the targeted poor by politicians and friends of government.
The State government, it was learnt, has taken the delivery of the first batch of 24,000 of 25k bags of rice, which Governor Umo Eno, had augmented with another 24,000 bags, to accommodate the captured poor households in 2,272, gazette villages across the 31 local government areas.
Also, Otuekong Franklin Isong, the State’s Director and Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of the Centre for Human Rights and Accountability Network, CHRAN, a Civil Society Organisation ,CSO, committed to transparency and good governance, who is a member of the State Palliative Committee, disclosed that the State government additionally had received 20 trucks of grains from the federal government.
Speaking in an interview in Uyo, the State capital, the CHRAN chief, added that the State also augmented the 20 trucks of FG’s grains with another 20 trucks, to round it up to 40 trucks.
Added to this, the Governor has assured of his administration’s commitment towards mitigating the sufferings of the people, explaining that through the newly launched Bulk Purchase Agency, BPA, which he said has taken delivery of truck loads of food items which would be distributed to needy citizens, the problem would be contained.
He noted that the multi – pronged interventions became necessary in order to tackle the wanton increase of prices by retailers with a view to crashing the astronomical rise in prices of essential goods.
He stressed that the distribution of government palliatives will be based strictly on the updated social register, with no consideration for political affiliations, cautioning political stakeholders at the grassroots against all tendencies of “winner takes all,” describing such greedy attitude as “anti-christian and not representative of the Akwa Ibom spirit”.
But despite the invocation of curses on the managers of the palliatives by Pastor Eno, outcries from the poor supposed beneficiaries persist across the rural Akwa Ibom, as politicians and the community leaders allegedly hijacked the Items.
For instance, at Udianga Enem village, in Etim Ekpo LGA, according to a local resident, “a former local government Chairman, from this LGA, diverted four out of the 20 bags and ordered the village chairman to ferry them to his mother, while dozens of the poor villagers the items were meant for, had to struggle on the formula to share the remaining few quantity after the village chairman and his Executive had taken the lion share”.
This week, the State government, according to feelers from the relevant Ministries including Agriculture, will begin the disbursement of several truck – loads of palliatives, and residents have appealed to the governor, to “ensure effective distribution to reach the most needy population”.
