The Leaders and Elders Forum of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Delta, on Thursday, accused the Delta State government of politicizing the palliative distribution process of the bags of rice meant to cushion the impact of fuel subsidy removal on citizens.
The communique, which was signed by the forum chairman, Godwin Ogbetuo; patron, Morrison Olori; deputy chairman, Tony Uti; secretary, Roland Kemefa; legal adviser, S.S. Osia; and chairman of communique committee, J.F. Daubry, commended President Bola Tinubu for the palliative programme but claimed that the People Democratic Party (PDP)-led state government has abused the distribution process by appointing only it’s members into supervising committee at various levels.
Recall that the Delta State Government received a total of 17,400 bags (50kg) from the Federal Government for distribution across the state.
The forum noted with satisfaction the efforts put in place by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu through its palliative programme to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal in the petroleum sector on citizens.
“The caucus while thanking Mr. President for the share allocated to Delta State, noted with pains and dismay that the effort of Mr. President has been politicized and abused by the delta state PDP led administration by appointing only members of PDP at both the state, local government and ward level into monitoring/oversight palliative distribution committee to the deliberate exclusion of APC members from committees and beneficiaries of the palliatives,”
The communique further thanked the president for the appointments of Festus Keyamo as the Minister for Aviation and Aerospace, Chiedu Ebie as chairman of NDDC and Monday Igbuya as member of the board of NDDC.
Reacting to the communique, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, Sir Festus Ahon, said the members of the committees were not card carrying members of any political party adding that the membership is composed of religious leaders, traditional rulers, youth council, women council and other credible personalities within communities.
He said: “The monitoring teams are made up of the leadership of the church that is CAN and PFN, National Youth Council, Council for Women Society, community leaders, traditional rulers.
“These are non-partisan persons, they are apolitical. And the distribution model is such that it will get down to everybody irrespective of political party. It will trickle down to everybody across the political divide.
They should go back to their various wards and villages to find out if the thing is not trickling down to the people it was meant for. Hunger does not know political parties. What we have done as a government is to ensure that every Deltan benefits from the palliative.”
