The Vice Chairman of the Delta State Subsidy Palliative Committee set up by the Delta State Government to cushion the effects of subsidy removal on petrol by the Federal Government, Olorogun Jaro Egbo, said the committee has successfully distributed the palliative to all the heavily impacted people.
He said, 16836 bags of 50kg rice and 6760 bags of maize were received as palliative from the federal government in addition to 3000 bags of rice from the Nigeria Governors Forum and all have been shared with Persons Living with Disabilities (PWDs), widows, and poor and vulnerable households within all the LGAs in the state.
He said this during an interactive session with Golden Nation Multimedia in Asaba, the Delta State capital on Thursday.
According to Jaro Egbo, after receiving the rice, the committee decided to allocate 696 bags per LGA, adding that nobody sold any rice because it was meant for the vulnerable.
Jaro Egbo who also is the Senior Adviser to the Governor on Transport clarified that the palliative committee was given the task of bringing out the blueprint to use and distribute the palliative which he said they had rightly done successfully.
“The only challenge we encounter is the excessive supply of maize because our people don’t like maize as they like rice and beans, yam or garri. Out of the N5 billion announced by the federal government, we only received N2bn worth of items as palliative. We were given 106 trucks of maize and we have only received 6760 bags of it and 16836 bags of 50kg rice.
“Another issue is transportation as it causes delays in the supply of the items based on the bad roads.
“Everybody was carried along in the process, women’s group, CAN, PFN, the Muslim community, Handicap, and the Orphanage were all in the structure that we set up in the distribution and there was nothing like politicians who hijacked the items in the system.
“At the ward level, the House of Assembly members, Party Chairmen, LGA Chairmen, and Commissioners were told to supervise. We only received N2bn as palliative and it did not come to us as cash, instead, we received it through maize and rice,” he said.
The Senior Adviser to the Governor on Transport highlighted some of the long-term plans of the state government to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy, stating that the government has reduced the working days to 3 days a week for all civil servants and also an additional ten thousand naira monthly palliatives for three months.
He said the government plans to bring in vehicles that will reduce the cost of transportation such as gas-powered Keke, buses, and electric cars. Adding that the Keke will be given out at a subsidized rate when the time comes.
He also added that the government has already signed an MOU with a company on where to charge these electric buses while calling on residents to continue to promote good governance and support the administration of His Excellency, Rt Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, to deliver the MORE Agenda.
