Ondo State Government has introduced stringent security measures to safeguard warehouses where food items meant to be distributed as palliatives are housed.
Chairman of the Palliative Strategy and Implementation Committee, Wale Akinterinwa, made this known on Friday while inspecting foodstuff and agricultural inputs stored in the warehouses alongside other members of the committee.
He said none of the warehouses in Ondo had been looted and that the palliatives were meant to cushion the impact of fuel subsidy removal.
This comes days after residents of Bayelsa broke into a warehouse in Yenagoa where 2022 flood palliatives were kept by the state government.
Akinterinwa, who doubles as Commissioner for Finance in Ondo assured residents of the state of prompt distribution of the items to the vulnerable.
He added that Ondo has received 2 billion Naira out of the 5 billion Naira disbursed by the federal government and the state received 5,700 bags of rice but plans to distribute 12,000 bags of rice.
The committee Chairman said a special Committee made up of all spectrums of the society was set up to avoid the distribution becoming a political party affair.
He said; “The Federal Government gave us 5700 bags of rice. The state has bought more than that. We will start sharing very soon.
“We put together a committee at the local government level. We have good representation that cuts across the spectrum of the society.
“We have gotten N2bn and we hope that they will give us the balance. They sent maize to us but we received little amount of maize and we hoped to get the balance.”
CorrectNG recalls that on Sunday night, a warehouse located along Isaac Boro Expressway in Yenagoa, was invaded by people said to be angered due to the hardship in the country occasioned by the removal of petrol subsidy by the Federal Government.
But the Bayelsa State Emergency Management Agency (BYSEMA) said that the stolen food items were no longer good for human consumption.
