The government of the State of Osun has debunked allegations that it has taken delivery of the rice component of the CACOVID relief materials, stating that it is yet to receive any further donations from the private sector Coalition.
It said that it has only received an assurance from CACOVID that the rice component was ready for delivery to the state, but that the supplies are yet to be delivered.
The government has also announced that based on the previous experience, it will be adopting a different approach to the distribution that will not require warehousing of the supplies.
Speaking at a press briefing, on Monday, the Secretary to the Osun State 21-man Food and Relief Committee, Chief Adebayo Jimoh, said it was expedient to explain to the public that no supplies had been made to the state to address possible misinformation in the public space.
He said: “Of a truth, we have received a letter that was signed by Osayi Alile, an Administrator of CACOVID, by which they made clarifications as to the reasons for the delay in delivering approximately 13 trucks of rice having 40,332 units of 10kg bags, to Osun State.
“The letter that was sent to the State confirmed that Osun State government had no intention to punish its citizens, as some people had insinuated. The letter also confirmed that CACOVID was ready to deliver the rice component of the palliatives, but as we speak, we are yet to receive the donations.
“But we assure the public, that the rice, once received, will be distributed directly through the Local Governments to the people identified as vulnerable in the society”, Jimoh stated.
Speaking further on the management mode of the expected donations, the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Dr Bode Olaonipekun, said the state government will be adopting a direct distribution model from tye suppliers to the local governments.
He said: “By reason of current exegesis in terms of security and storage, especially due to the past experience, we are not going to warehouse any of the the food items coming into the state from CACOVID.
“Instead, we are deploying a direct distribution model, from the supplier’s truck to each local government. Each local government will provide its own truck to take delivery of the number of bags shared to it.
“Security arrangement has been put in place for the transfer of the food items, from the supplier to the local governments, and from the point of collection to the respective destinations.
“We wish to state that all beneficiaries specified according to the guidelines of CACOVID will be covered. There will also be a monitoring team in each of the local government, comprising: CACOVID monitoring abd evaluation officials, representatives of civil society organisations, representatives of the christian and muslim communities, representatives of the traditional institutions, representatives of the informal sector, and representatives of youths and students.
“This is to ensure that every segment of the society that should benefit from the palliatives is represented in the monitoring of the process”, Olaonipekun stated.
Also present at the briefing was the Commissioner for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, Prince Adebayo Adeleke, and the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Ismail Omipidan.
