Residents of Oshimili South Local Government Area of Delta state have sent a petition to the state Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, over alleged food items diversion by the council boss, Mr. Uche Osadebe.
The petitioners made of Ward three members in Okwe community in their petition addressed to the Governor, a copy made available to Journalists in Asaba on Monday, called on the Governor to urgently address their griviances following the palliatives’ distribution process in which the council boss allegedly shortchanged them.
Recall that the state government had on the wake of lockdown and dust to dawn imposed on Deltans and other residents, provided palliatives for the people, particularly indigent Deltans to cushion the hash effects of the sit at home order over the Coronavirus pandemic ravaging the world and the state.
But in the Petition signed by the President General of Okwe Community, Mr. Nduka Uzogor accused the Council boss, Mr. Osadebe of high-handedness in the manner of distribution, alleging that the food items instead of sharing them among the needy were diverted to Friends and relations by Officials of the Council as supervised by the Council boss
Part of the Petition read:
“Prior to the incident which transpired on April 19, 2020, the petitioners noted that a committee was broadly constituted, and according to the guidelines of the state government, but this was not recognized by the Chairman of the Council who distributed the Palliatives chaotically, Osadebe initially redirected the vehicle which conveyed the palliatives, claiming that the people of Okwe community wanted to mob him, and all efforts to beg him fell on deaf ears”
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The petitioners alleged that “after some hours he resurfaced on the grounds that he will share the Palliatives himself in the contravention of the Governor’s instructions, at the end, he could not manage the crowd and pandemonium ensued which resulted in the injuries of many people, we don’t know what he intends to achieve by frustrating efforts of the state Governor to reach out to the grassroots.
“As a community, we are not happy and so we ask that the Governor address this matter because there is a total fraud in the distribution of the food items into the hands of relations and Personal friends.”
Giving credence to their petition, the petitioners mentioned some of those who witnessed the scene to include: member representing Oshimili South Constituency at house of Assembly, Mr. Shedrack Rapu including other top Government functionaries
Refuting the allegations, the Council boss, Mr. Osadebe on a telephone interview said that his decision to distribute the palliatives was based on the fact that “they were not organized.
He also asked: “Why will one ward out of 11in the local government area become a problem? I don’t want to give a biased statement in the media but go and ask the police and other press men who were there at the scene, all the allegations are not true, they want to turn the whole thing into politics, the petitioners are liars and they can’t do nothing”
