By Jethro Ibileke

After several denials by almost all layers of power in the Godwin Obaseki administration in Edo State and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the government Wednesday admitted it indeed received 20 trucks of 25kg bags of rice from President Bola Tinubu.

It also admitted that the bags of rice from the federal government were palliatives for indigent residents of the state.

Recall that the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had alleged that the state government hoarded and re-bagged the 20 truck loads 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 facts. 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 directive on where it should be delivered to.

They, however, clarified that the state government and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) were in “big collaboration” for procurement and distribution of rice and other food items to for 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, garri, rice, yam and plantain to give it to vulnerable people and that is a deliberate government policy.

“On the issue of federal government giving us rice, few months ago, they brought some few truck loads 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, 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 household 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 to the poor places.

“What CAN now did was that they acknowledged the sponsors of this initiative, that is where the re-bagged came in and they print 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 said it’s their distribution warehouse that was burgled, so, how does that concern the government?”

*Text, except headline, courtesy PMNews