COVID-19 PALLIATIVES: Ohanaeze accuses Finance Minister of nepotism, calls for her resignation

The Ohanaeze Youths Council (OYC), a faction loyal to the breakaway faction of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, led by suspended Secretary General, Uche Okwukwu, has accused the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Farouq of nepotism.

the group alleged, that she excluded Igbos from the federal government’s COVID-19 Stimulus packages to cushion the negative effects of the economic and social lockdown.

The group in a statement issued on Saturday which was jointly signed by it’s President General, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro and the Secretary General, Okwu Nnabuike accused the Minister of being biased and sectional for denying Igbos their legitimate rights to benefit from the palliatives.

The OYC has therefore demanded the immediate resignation of Farouq, for allegedly sectionalizing such national affairs to the detriment of people’s lives.

“We condemn vehemently the vituperative rhetoric’s of the Minister, Sadiya Farouk, which says, “Igbos and people in the South should not expect any money from Federal Government to cushion effects of the coronavirus.

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“She is no longer fit to be a Minister, and the only way to assuage her provocative action meant to assault the sensibility of Igbos, is for the Presidency to relieve her of her duties in order to exonerate the Federal Government of her unpatriotic and nepotistic attitude capable of truncating our democracy and which remains a threat to the unity of Nigeria,” the statement by OYC read in part.

As part of palliatives to alleviate the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown in Nigeria, the Federal Government disbursed N5,000 to one million indigent Nigerians in the country.

The disbursement was done on Wednesday by the Sadiya Farouq, at the Kwali Local Government Council of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Reports say over 100 beneficiaries received the sum of N20,000 each covering four months with the disbursed cash said to be paid from the Conditional Cash Transfers Scheme.

The action was in line with a recent directive by President Muhammadu Buhari that the conditional cash transfers for the next two months be paid immediately to beneficiaries.

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