Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
The All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in Ekiti State has berated the All progressives Congress (APC) led government in the State for allegedly misleading the general public over the sharing formula of palliatives meant to cushion the effects of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The APGA alleged that not only were the said palliatives by the State government very poor but have had their distribution characterized by discrimination against some political parties and people in the state.
In a statement by the State Chairman of APGA, Hon Rufus Alabi, the opposition party said it is imperative to set the record straight on the palliatives distributed to political parties in the State.
Alabi, according to the statement, alleged that the claims by the Ekiti State Government that all political parties in the State have been taken care of in the sharing of the palliatives is misleading.
The statement read in part:
“From our findings, Ekiti State Government only gave two Political Parties the palliatives, and they are the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), including heads of other political parties.
“PDP was given 250 packages while LP was given 10 packages. The State Government’s claim that it gave to all political parties was actually the packages it gave to only heads of political parties through the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) which is the statutory conglomeration of all the registered political parties in the state.
“The ones given through IPAC was received by its Chairman in the State, Hon. Ifedayo Iyaniwura and was only shared to chairmen of all the political parties, not members. And even to our amazement, what the party chairmen met in the packs were a scanty number of items such as sugar, garri and noodles which a government should not even be proud of sharing to people who have high expectations from them. One wonders why members of other political parties apart from PDP and LP were not catered and the APC government is telling lies to the public that it has taken care of all political parties in the State.”
Alabi wondered why the government should discriminate in sharing the palliatives to Ekiti people for the obvious reason of political differences. He, however, urged the people of Ekiti to obey the rules and regulations laid down by the State government to combat the pandemic, including the use of face masks in public, social distancing, periodic hand washing and staying at home. He prayed for Nigeria at large and urged all to pray for the country at this crucial time.