Members of the Steering Committee of Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) have exonerated state governors from blame over the delay in distribution of palliatives.
Some of the members attributed the delay to the decision by the committee to contract the production of foodstuff out to manufacturers to reduce inflation by pumping about N15 billion into that sub-sector within a short time.
Dr. Sola Adeduntan, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of First Bank Plc, a member of the committee, who spoke at the weekend, clarified on the allegations of hoarding of the COVID-19 palliatives against the state governors.
According to him, “We set up the coalition to pull resources together to support the government to combat COVID-19 pandemic.
“We decided to provide food to 1.7 million most vulnerable families across the country and we put a substantial resources behind the initiative.
“The food items we intend to purchase included rice, pasta, noodles, garri, sugar and salt, etc.
“The challenge was how to purchase those items worth about N15 billion without driving inflation.
“We had to contract this out to various manufacturers and that took time for them to deliver the goods to us.
“It was only in September and early October that we handed the goods over to the various state governments and FCT.
“It is therefore a fallacy that the state governments or Dangote hoarded those foodstuffs.”
Adeduntan is a member of Steering Committee of CACOVID, alongside Aliko Dangote, John Coumatorous, Jim Ovia, Tony Elumelu, Abdulsamad Rabiu Segun Agbaje, Herbert Wigwe and Godwin Emefiele governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He said CACOVID had “successfully provided health facilities, diagnostic kits and medications to all the states and Abuja,” because they realised that the pandemic had destroyed the economic power of most Nigerians.
Also, Osita Nwasinobi, a member of the committee, advised those involved in the destruction of public and private properties to “desist from these raids, in order to allow the states to proceed with peaceful and fair distribution of these palliatives to the neediest and most vulnerable in our society.”
He said CACOVID had been working with state governors, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) to procure and distribute food items to about two million most vulnerable families (and about 10 million Nigerians) across the 774 local government areas in the country, as part of the private sector’s support to the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
