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Edo, Delta, Bayelsa govts. outline palliative distribution strategies
Edo, Delta, and Bayelsa Governments have expressed their different palliative distribution strategies to lessen the impacts of the current harsh economy on their citizens.
The state governments disclosed their plans while responding to the citizens’ call for intervention in a survey across the three states by the newsmen on Wednesday.
The distribution of palliatives had recently become the focus of state governments and organisations, following the hard times occasioned by the removal of petrol subsidy and the unification of exchange rates.
On March 22, the Federal Medical Centre, Keffi, had confirmed the death of two students while rushing to get bags of rice distributed by the Nasarawa State Government.
Besides the death of the two students of Nasarawa State University, Keffi, the hospital also confirmed it received 14 others with different degrees of injuries from the incident.
The Vice-Chancellor, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Prof. Suleiman Bala-Mohammed, while attributing the stampede to impatience on the part of the students, promised further investigation into the matter.
In a similar incident on March 24, the police in Bauchi State confirmed the death of four persons in a stampede during the distribution of alms by a philanthropist in Bauchi metropolis.
Spokesperson of the police command, SP Ahmed Wakil, said the incident occurred when hundreds of people gathered to collect alms from the said philanthropist.
The police, thereafter, said the death toll from the stampede had risen to seven as at March 25.
Against this backdrop, the Edo government says it is doing things differently to ensure lives meant to benefit from the palliatives do not end up dead during the process of distribution.
The state Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Mr Chris Nehikhare, told NAN that the state operates its ‘Operation Feed the Hungry Initiative’ via places of worship.
Nehikhare said the distribution of palliatives to the people through places of worship was to avoid stampedes as recorded in Nasarawa and Bauchi states.
“This method of palliative distribution, using churches and mosques, is the best.
“It’s just like the Edobest Education System that so many states have come to understudy and adopt,” he said.
According to him, the model does not encourage stampedes because it takes into consideration the closeness between the poor and the vulnerable and their various churches and mosques.
“When people are poor and hungry, they feel more comfortable to go to their places of worship, either the church or the mosque.
“You will also agree that these places of worship do not discriminate. It does not matter the political party one belongs to; everyone is treated equally.
“So, this is what this model is based on,” he said.
The commissioner disclosed that the model supported the buying of the food within the locality where it would be distributed without involving contractors.
He said: “The only role the government plays in the model is to provide funds and monitor the process.”
According to him, some Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) usually donate food to widows, the poor, and the vulnerable, going through churches and mosques.
“It is a model where, even though government is funding it, it (government) has removed its hands completely from the distribution process.
“Government will only carry out a routine monitoring to access the outcome and its impact.
“So, I recommend this model to other states. I’m sure that with time, when people begin to see the effectiveness and the impact of this model, other states will adopt it,” he added.
Meanwhile in Delta, as residents lament not receiving palliatives from the government, Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mr Dennis Guwor, said the legislators were not mandated to give such to their constituents.
The speaker made the disclosure when members of the Western Chapter of the Ijaw National Congress visited him in his office.
Though Guwor noted he was not against giving palliatives, he explained that members of the assembly had, in their different ways, empowered their constituents.
According to him, members of the assembly can reach out to their constituents during Easter and Christmas celebrations as well as any other time as the need arises.
Corroborating the people’s cry in Delta, Director of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr Karo Ovemeso, confirmed that the state government had yet to embark on any distribution of palliatives to residents.
He, however, said: “That we are not giving palliatives for now does not mean we have not been giving relief materials to victims and communities that are challenged.”
The residents of Bayelsa have a similar story to share, as they said they too had yet to receive any form of palliatives from their state government.
A resident, Mr Moses Edefe, lamenting how he and his family could barely feed, alleged that the state government had not shown concern for the people’s sufferings.
According to him, the state government has never been proactive in terms of the welfare of the people.
“They shared rice during the 2023 November governorship election but only to their party members, a Federal Government palliative for that matter.
“It was a very wrong thing to do, not considering the poor people in the society.
“I don’t know why the Bayelsa government keeps neglecting the people.
“Even the N35,000 wage palliative has not been paid, not even for a month, to any Bayelsa worker; it’s very bad.
“I call on the Bayelsa government to do the needful, as the people are suffering. Let them have a rethink,” he said.
Another resident, Mr Solomon Edums, who recalled the loss of lives in the past few days while struggling to secure palliatives, called for caution.
However, in a subtle reaction to the people’s allegations, Gov. Douye Diri of Bayelsa, at Easter, said the provision of palliatives was not a lasting solution to the economic hardship in the country.
He said his administration was initiating policies and programmes that would bring about long-term empowerment to people of the state rather than short-term palliatives.
The governor, who explained that the government could not alone provide for everyone, called on the people to get involved.
News
Stop using repressive laws to intimidate journalists – SERAP, NGE tell FG
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, and Nigeria Guild of Editors, NGE, have called on Nigerian authorities at all levels of government to stop using repressive and anti-media laws to target, intimidate and harass journalists, critics and media houses.
The groups made the demand after an interactive session on ‘the state of press freedom in Nigeria’ held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Ikeja.
In a joint statement, SERAP and NGE said that, “the government of President Bola Tinubu, the country’s 36 governors and FCT minister must now genuinely uphold press freedom, ensure access to information to all Nigerians, obey court judgments, and respect the rule of law”.
They expressed concerns about the escalating crackdown on the right to freedom of expression and media freedom and the flagrant disregard for the rule of law by authorities at all levels of government.
The groups note that the suppression of the press in recent times takes various forms ranging from extrajudicial to unlawful detentions, disappearances, malicious prosecutions and wrongful use of both legislation and law enforcement.
The statement read in part: “We would continue to speak truth to power and to hold authorities to account for their constitutional and international obligations including on freedom of expression and media freedom.
“Nigeria as a country has a long and unpleasant history of press gagging and clampdown on media freedom, which is evidence of extensive state censorship of media and in some cases, the utter control of state-owned media houses.
“This position has not changed considerably despite almost 25 years of unbroken democratic rule in the Fourth Republic.”
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FG adds 625MW to national grid – Minister
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Tax: Court orders FCT-IRS agency to seal off defaulting coys
A Magistrate Court sitting in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, on Friday, ordered the Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) to seal off a company, Ifedi A.K. Nigeria Ltd, over allegations bordering on non-filing of annual returns.
The Magistrate, Janada Balami, gave the order after lawyer to FCT-IRS, Michael Towolawi, moved the application to the effect.
Towolawi told the court that the company had failed to file its annual returns from 2019 to 2023 in breach of Section 81 of the Personal Income Tax Act, LFN, 2004, and amended in 2011.
He said all efforts to make the company comply with the law proved abortive.
The lawyer, therefore, applied that the company be compel to appear before the court to explain why it acted in breach of the law.
Balami, who held that the application by the agency against the company had merit, accordingly granted same to seal the No 6, Rudolph Close, Off Katsina-Ala Street, Maitama, Abuja.
She, consequently, ordered the company, the sole defendant in the matter, to appear before the court on May 16.
The Director, Legal Services of the FCT-IRS, Festus Tsavar, told journalists after the proceeding that the service would move against companies that do not file their annual returns as provided by law.
“You know that we have a new minister in FCT that is doing a lot of projects and that hinges on money.
“And of course, you are aware that FCT has come out of TSA.
“So it is the internally generated revenue that will make the government of FCT to be able to do those projects completely within required time,” he said.
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