Economic Hardships: Abia receives FG’s grain palliatives, assures transparent distribution

The Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti has received bags of grains allocated to the state by the federal government of Nigeria as palliatives.

He promised transparent and fair distribution of the grains to the people by the government.

Otti disclosed this on Wednesday while inaugurating the distribution committee at the Government House Umuahia.

The Governor represented by his Chief of Staff, Caleb Ajagba said the formation of the committee aligns with directives from the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, to ensure a well-coordinated distribution process in Abia state.

He explained that the distribution process is aimed at mitigating the hardships caused by the rising food costs following the removal of fuel subsidies by the federal government.

According to him, “We want to stress that this is a very transparent administration and so we don’t want to keep anyone in doubt or the dark as to what accrues to this state.

“The same way we have demonstrated capacity, competence and transparency in the management of this state.

“Everything that accrues to this state whether from the Federal, the international donor agencies or the local organizations will always be declared so that the citizens will know what they are receiving.

“Whatever they are receiving, the people will also know how what is being received is being made available to everyone so that at the end of it all, they will know that indeed, a new Abia is here.

“That is why we have called on everyone here today so that we can sit around the table and be able to take stock of what has been made available and then decisively deal with the issue of how they will be made available to the end users.

“We also want to encourage the level of transparency that the governor has shown to be replicated everywhere across board,” Otti added.

DAILY POST gathered that Abia’s allocation of grain palliatives includes 663 metric tons of maize (approximately 13,260 50kg bags) and 79.9 metric tons of garri (approximately 3,196 25kg bags).

These provisions will be distributed equitably across the state’s local government areas.