• I received only two cups of rice, says mother of three

Several women and children from poor homes fought to get portions of the palliatives distributed across the states over the weekend. There are confirmed reports from some states that the funds for the palliatives were hijacked by party officials at the different levels. A community leader in Angwa Rimi area of Suleja told our correspondent that the chairman of the distribution committee in his ward has concluded arrangements to acquire a new property. “You know that the money was given to each committee at the ward level to make the purchase of the items for the palliatives. So the usual Nigerian factor played out” he said.
The Federal Government had shared N5 billion each to the 36 states and the FCT to cushion the effects of the petrol subsidy removal announced by President Bola Tinubu at his inauguration on May 29.

Those who were lucky only received two cups of rice or a sachet of spaghetti. A middle aged woman, Mrs. Ukamaka Adiele said she got just one sachet of spaghetti. “I am a mother of five children, they gave me a sachet of spaghetti after registering my name at my Kwamba Low Cost polling unit in Suleja.”
Another mother of three, Mrs. Aisha Usman narrated how she was given two cups of rice for her family. For Mr. Audu Ishaya of Kaduna road, Suleja, he said his community received enough items as some went home with four to five sachets of spaghetti per family.

A source confirmed that the palliative money was shared to each local government area and were mandated to make the purchase of the items. “Some bigger local government areas got N200 million while the smaller ones got N100 million each. This was further broken down to N20 million and N10 million per ward depending on size of the ward.”

An ugly incident however happened at the Maje ward of Suleja LGA where it was reported that some bags of rice got missing after the trailer that brought them offloaded at the LEA Primary school, Maje.

The Niger state government had declared three days public holiday between Wednesday and Friday last week to enable the smooth distribution of the palliatives to the people. There were however several complaints that the bulk of the palliatives were given to the traditional rulers who in turn shared only to their subjects particularly the indigenes of the state. An official in the office of the Chairman of Suleja L.G.A who pleaded not to be named, confirmed that the list of beneficiary groups was compiled from above and given to them.
Many people in the state complained that the palliatives did not get to them.