Katsina Residents Accuse Government of Distributing Rotten Grains As Palliatives

Confusion and anxiety are trailing the Katsina State Government’s palliatives package to vulnerable persons across the 34 local government areas of the state, as the residents have complained of the state of the food, and the lack of the food distributed to them.

The state government, last week, commenced the distribution of palliative packages to the needy in order to cushion the impact of the fuel subsidy removal.

While some beneficiaries decried the inadequacy of the maize and rice distributed, others said the free grains were decayed to the extent that even animals would not be fed with them.

Also, some residents who are not members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), lamented the hijack and their exclusion from the whole distribution process, while others feigned ignorance of the exercise.

One of the beneficiaries from Jibia, Abdu Kabir, expressed displeasure over the decaying nature of the maize and what he termed insignificant quantity he received from the state government.

However, the state Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, Hon. Bello Lawal-Yandaki, who addressed journalists on the issues raised by the beneficiaries, said the rotten grains in circulation were not from the state government.

He explained that the state government in collaboration with the 34 local government councils purchased 36,100 bags of quality maize and rice, using their monthly allocations from the federation account.

Lawal-Yandaki, who is also the chairman of Kaita local government, said the palliatives were distributed to citizens across the 361 wards of the state irrespective of their political and tribal differences.

 

He assured that more palliative packages by the state government were on the pipeline to mitigate the economic hardship faced by the citizens