The Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has alleged that the #EndSARS protest was politically motivated to ridicule the federal government.
Bello, in an interview on Tuesday, said that the protest was sponsored by politicians who are bent on destabilizing the country ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Speaking further, the governor said the looting of CACOVID-19 Palliatives in Kogi state was also the handiwork of politicians. He said the palliatives donated to the state have been distributed to the residents of the state, adding that the looted palliatives were relief materials bought by the state government for flood victims.
The governor said that his government periodically shares palliatives with residents and the looting of the warehouses in the state shows that some people are out to destroy the state.
Bello added that the CACOVID palliatives were hoarded in some states as a result of the instruction from CACOVID. He said the members of the private sector-led coalition against COVID-19 demanded to flag off the distribution of the materials.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that residents and mobs in some states invaded warehouses and looted COVID-19 materials, leading to chaos and violence.
The government’s reaction is coming after CACOVID-19, in a statement issued by its spokesperson in Abuja, Nwanosiobi Osita explained that it decided to procure food items from the manufacturers to avoid price disruption in the market.
The group said that the scale of the nationwide food distribution programme and the magnitude of persons to benefit from the palliatives were some of the reasons that delayed the delivery of the items.
According to the coalition, it had been working with governors, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory and the Nigerian Governors’ Forum to procure, deliver and distribute these relief items.
CACOVID said each household is expected to receive 10kg bag of rice, 5kg bag of garri/semolina, one carton of pasta, two cartons of noodles, 5kg of sugar and 1kg of salt.
