…a bag for 56 households ridiculous, miserable, dehumanizing, they say
Some Community Development Associations in Ogun State have rejected the one bacco bag of “stimulus package’’ doled out on Saturday to each CDA to cushion the effects of the lockdown which commenced in the state on April 3 night.
The Chairmen of AnuOluwapo and Asiribo CDAs in Adigbe in Abeokuta, Pa Sunday Ogunsanwo and Mr Kamal Bello, said the one bag “stimulus package” being distributed to each CDA in the area is unbefitting, ridiculous and a monumental fraud.
Ogunsanwo said the small bag containing rice and other consumables is barely enough for a household not to talk of sharing it among the vulnerable in the 56 houses in the community.
“We reject it totally. This is not what we expect from Mr Governor, this is not what he promised us.
“A bag that is not enough for a household of five or six people, how can we share it among the CDA comprising 56 houses,” Ogunsanwo, a retired Deputy director in the civil service, said.
“It is unfair and l think it an insult to the people,” he added.
He called on the governor to probe the distribution of the palliatives and direct the officials handling it to do the needful during the lockdown.
Mr Kamal Bello, in his view, said the gesture was uncalled for and underserving.
“How can the government give out a small bag supposedly containing palliatives for a CDA to share ?
“I think this is a monumental fraud, if we return it we are not sure it will get to the governor,” Bello, also a retiree, said.
Contacted by Persecondnews for his comment, Mr Kunle Somorin, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor said what was handed out to the CDAs was not what the governor approved.
“We gave a bag per family to vulnerable and poorest people in the state. A bag cannot be for a CDA with 56 households,’’ he said in reply to our enquiries on Sunday.
Persecondnews recalls that the governor had on Friday on the eve of the lockdown announced that the bag for each household contains 5kg each of rice, beans, and gari with tomato pastes, vegetable oil, salt, seasoning cubes, and other hygiene products.
Abiodun warned: “Under no circumstance should the items be diverted to other use other than what they were meant for.’’
He appealed to the people to avoid stampede and unnecessary struggles during the distribution, saying it will a continuous thing.
“We have constituted a multi-sectoral local government task force to monitor the daily report and distribution of the stimulus packages from the state government to all the 236 wards of the state.”
Leave a comment