COVID-19: Relief packages meant for poor, vulnerable, says Ogun govt

THE Ogun State government, yesterday, insisted that the target of the distribution of its COVID-19 relief food items is poor and the vulnerable, hence its insistence on direct distribution to the intended beneficiaries. In a statement in Abeokuta, Kunle Somorin, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Dapo Abiodun, noted that the government’s attention has been drawn to some video clips circulating on the social media purportedly showing some scanty items being distributed to Community Development Councils/Associations for onward distribution to their members.

The statement reads: “The 500,000 poor and vulnerable households are targeted in all covering an estimated three million poor and vulnerable individuals in the state. The distribution has started with the first batch of 100,000 households across the 20 Local Governments in the state on a ward by ward basis in phases of 250-300 households per ward.

“This phased approach is adopted because of the logistics of supply (at a time everyone is scrambling to buy available food items), repackaging and distribution to all the local governments and subsequently to the intended beneficiaries. “The government wishes to reassure the citizens that the distribution is an on-going process and that the items will reach all the mapped beneficiaries in due course starting with the elderly the poor and vulnerable.”