The Secretary to the Cross River State Government, Prof Anthony Owan-Eno has revealed that the state government has acquired an extra N500 million fund for the palliatives committee to buy more commodities to bolster the effects of the hard times caused partly by the removal of petroleum subsidy.
This news was revealed during a press statement where he catalogued the distributions of the bags of rice to various groups as follows:
Students would be given a 1000 rice bags, Religious Groups would be given 800 rice bags, Traditional Rulers would be given 400 rice bags, Trade Unions would be given 300 rice bags, Labour Unions would be given 800 rice bags, Civil Servants would be given 800 bags of rice and finally, Persons Living With Disabilities would be gifted 200 bags of rice.
Ogeyi Odey, the Director General of the Cross River State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, had also confirmed that the Agency had also received the commodities and that allocation will commence next week in all parts of the state.
Odey had also remarked that the Agency has explained how they would cover the entire 18 LGAs, and that any group not in the present approved list would surely be captured later.
Odey had also made a shocking revelation, disclosing that she was currently under pressure from the government and ruling APC leaders, as well as traditional rulers and politicians to loot the palliatives.
But according to her, she had enough security cover at the different warehouses in the state to oversee the distributions.
In her words:
“I only take instructions from the State Governor and he has since approved the way the palliatives should be distributed.”
