- Ex-agitators vow to shut down Niger Delta over governors’ silence
- Osun beef up security around stores
Aggrieved Bayelsa State residents yesterday broke into a warehouse on Isaac Boro Expressway, Yenagoa, and carted away palliatives kept by the state government.
It was gathered that the burglars, groaning under the hardship occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy, took food items, particularly rice meant for victims of last year’s flood, were kept.
Bayelsa was described as one of the worst hit states in the country’s history.
Some of the food items carted away by the looters, it was gathered, had since expired but that did not stop them.
With the subsidy removal ramping up the price of petrol from around N190 to about N620 per litre in the state, prices of goods and services had correspondingly skyrocketed resulting in acute hardship for many households across the state.
President Bola Tinubu had promised some palliatives for Nigerians to cushion the effects of the removal as the administration announced N5 billion grants and foodstuffs for each state and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
However, it has yet to be ascertained if the warehouse looted in Yenagoa housed food items promised by the Tinubu administration.
The state government has yet to comment on the incident.
A resident of Yenagoa metropolis said the information he got was that the looted palliatives were not new, stressing that they were left-overs from the flood period.
A source, who craved anonymity, said: “Many of the food items were bad, except perhaps the water. Yesterday, they were cleaning the place to pave the way for new palliatives to be bought in. But some people acting on erroneous information invaded the place and started looting the food items meant to be thrown away.
“For me, the only query is why the state government should leave the food items to get spoilt when they should have given them out to the people at the right time?”
Meanwhile, aggrieved ex-agitators have threatened to stage protests in the Niger Delta following failure of governors in the region to provide palliatives to poor communities despite receiving N5bn from the Federal Government.
The angry stakeholders under the auspices of Coalition of Ex-agitators of Niger Delta (CEND) said their governors seemed to have diverted the money released by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to alleviate the suffering caused by the removal of fuel subsidy.
The Chairman, CEND, Gen. Gershom Mpakaboari Gbobo, said in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, that while Tinubu was sensitive enough to make provisions for palliatives, their governors appeared unconcerned with the level of hardship in their various states, especially in Bayalsa and Rivers states.
“Where are our palliatives?” queried Gershom, who insisted that there were no deliberate activities and programmes by the governors targeted at providing relief to the people.
He said: “Does it mean that as usual, these governors have pocketed the money? We will never allow it to happen. We will compel them to bring out the money in a mother of all protests across the states. It will no longer be business as usual. Our people are suffering untold hardship while these governors are junketing in profligacy and living large without showing any concern to our problems.
“We expected the governor’s to have started deliberate programmes aimed at reaching the people with palliatives. We expected them to add reasonable amount of money to the N5bn and float far-reaching programmes that will practically ameliorate the pains of the people. But they are less concerned. We can see what Borno Governor is doing for his people but our entire region is quiet.”
Gershom wondered why some leaders of ex-agitators like the Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme Committee on Strategic Communications, Gen. Nature Dumale, and the Chairman/President of all first Phase Ex-Agitators in the Niger Delta region, HRH Henry Binidodogha Ekes, had remained quiet over the non-challant attitude of the governors.
“Are our leaders, the likes of Hon Kakas, the leaders of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), who is very close to the Presidency, including Nature Dumale, who is also the Secretary of the First Phase Ex-agitators part of the conspiracy to divert the palliative cash? All of them must speak out against these governors because when we begin our protests we will not listen to anybody,” Gershom said.
In Osun State, the government said it has beefed up security around warehouses where subsidy removal palliatives of Federal government were kept to prevent looting and invasion by hoodlums.
The state had announced receipt of 3,000 bags of rice from the federal government and said it was awaiting 14,516 bags of rice and 3200MT of maize before it would commence distribution of palliative to the vulnerable.
The Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, told our correspondent that government has put in place additional security operatives around the warehouses where palliative are kept.
His words: “We have put enough security measures in place, for those that may want to take advantage of the fact that we are still expecting another consignment from the federal government to loot the one we have at hand. We have informed security operatives and we have built more security around the places (warehouses) to make it impossible for anybody to loot the palliative meant for the vulnerable of the society.
“We are still updating the people of the state tomorrow on development over the palliative because we heard information that some consignment will arrive today (Monday). So, when we receive it, we are going to update the people on what is going on.”
