By Jethro Ibileke
The Edo state government has admitted that it received 20 trucks of 25kg bags of rice from the federal government as palliative for indigent residents of the state.
Recall that the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has alleged that the state government hoarded and rebagged the 20 truckloads of rice it received from the federal government.
It made the allegation following the looting of rice by some residents at a private warehouse in Benin during the #EndBadGovernance protest, noting that the looted rice was part of the one supplied by the federal government.
It will also be recalled that the Deputy Director-General of the council, Rev. Olu Martins at a press briefing on Monday also faulted Senator Adams Oshiomhole over the claims of 20 trucks of palliative rice received from the federal government.
“Twenty trucks of rice, you can imagine the numbers! Who received the rice? Oshiomhole ought to have his facts by now. They don’t have that fact. All they have is conflicting propaganda. So, there is no rice anywhere from the Federal Government. And every other thing is APC jingoism and it won’t stand.
“This is simply rascality to incite people because the APC has nothing to campaign with,” Martins had said.
But, the state government at a press briefing on Wednesday, jointly addressed by the Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare and the Special Adviser (media strategy) Crusoe Osagie, stated that the rice came with the directive on where it should be delivered.
They however clarified that the state government and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) are in “big collaboration” for procurement and distribution of rice and other food items to the needy ones in the state.
Nehikhare said: “Edo state government did not buy rice, what we did was to purchase food and other items, gari, rice yam and plantain to give it to vulnerable people and that is a deliberate government policy.
“On the issue of the federal government giving us rice, a few months ago, they brought some few truckloads of rice and they were distracted according to the formula they set: to IDP camps, to orphanages and other people.
“Edo state government did not touch one of them, they were sent to the local government areas the way it was designed to be given out.
“If some misguided Ministers in Abuja are echoing the voice of propaganda of Edo APC, we have spent ₦2.2 billion to feed our people. 20 trucks of rice came to Edo state and we are close to 7 million how does that help?
Commenting on the looted rice at a private warehouse in Benin during the #EndBadGovernance protest, Caruso Osagie described it as APC’s electioneering propaganda.
He said: “Let’s do this simple arithmetic: Edo State has 18 local government areas, some are larger than others, assuming you send one truck of the 25kg rice to each of the local government areas, how many households is it going to feed and for how long is it going to feed them?
“Go and check, when people are suffering in the society, especially in the suburban and rural societies, where do they go to? They either go to their Pastors or they go to their Imams or they go to their juju priests. They don’t come to Government House, they don’t go to their local government chairmen.
“The government said, since these people always go to their religious leaders when they are in distress when we want to support them, that’s why we said, ‘you, CAN, you Muslim welfare board, take money go to local markets to buy the food items, let the money revolve among the people and at the end of the day, distribute these foods to your branches and the poor places.
“What CAN now do was they acknowledge the sponsors of this initiative, that is where the rebag came in and they printed Edo State food support programme on them because they didn’t use their money to buy.
“In the process of distribution, the riot cut up with it and they overran one of the trucks where they were kept and stole it. CAN came out and aside actually, it’s their distribution warehouse that was burgled, so, how does that concern the government?
“APC cannot be pissing on our backs and say rain is falling. Instead of them addressing what the people are facing, they say 20 trucks of rice to a whole state that has 18 local government areas with a population of about five million people of which not less than 60 per cent are poor and vulnerable. What are 20 trucks of 9f rice going to do?
“Edo state has an ongoing plan where every month ₦1 billion is given to CAN to buy food and distribute it to the people. This is going to continue till the end of this administration. Is that not better than some idle 20 trucks of 25kg of rice they came with a list that it must be sent to IDPs, orphanage homes and local government areas and we followed the way they listed it
“We also saw APC’s propaganda on Dangote’s rice. Dangote had done a documentary about how the rice they brought to Edo had been distributed for the past six months up to the point of cooking and sharing with the children. They distributed it and they videoed it.
“You see, what the APC is doing is simple propaganda. APC simply created jobs for the boys, that’s what they did with their rice-feeding programme
“The federal government is supposed to come to Edo and learn how to do support for local people. If we say that the government should buy this rice, it means that the people in authority are the ones that will benefit.”