Connect with us

News

Nigerian govt’s poisonous rice palliatives to citizens a wicked, ungodly act —PDP

Published

on

You are hallucinating, PDP reacts to Bello's claims that 10 PDP govs will join APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has reacted to the claim that the Federal Government shared expired rice to some states as Covid-19 palliatives.

The party said it was wicked, ungodly and irreconcilable that, in the name of saving the lives of Nigerians against the coronavirus pandemic, the Federal Government would share poisonous rice to them.

The governments of Oyo and Ondo States have claimed that the rice the Federal Government sent to them as Covid-19 palliatives were expired and unhealthy for human consumption.

Responding in a statement on Sunday by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Prince Diran Odeyemi, the PDP accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government of distributing ‘rotten rice’ seized by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) many years ago instead of using the money donated to Nigerians to buy food items as palliatives for them.

Odeyemi also said it was “lack of initiative and poor judgement if the best method and option deployed by the government is to give financial succour only to Nigerians with less than N5,000 in their bank account or citizen who are not able to top their mobile phone with more than N100 whereas they know where the poor Nigerians lives when they want their votes.”

He recalled that in a widely circulated video clip, that NCS had declared millions of seized bags of rice as unfit for human consumption going by the chemicals supposedly used by the smugglers in preserving them before bringing them to Nigeria.

Odeyemi, therefore, wondered why the Federal Government would through the same agency release such rice to Nigerians as palliatives.

He said, “It is irreconcilable if in the name of saving the lives of Nigerians against the coronavirus pandemic, the same government is giving Nigerians poisonous rice as palliative; we wonder how a government that claims to value the lives of its people will openly toy with the idea of feeding them with expired food.”

Odeyemi said a similar story in Osun State where adulterated and expired bags of rice were shared to the people in the name of palliatives landed many people in the hospital was still fresh in the minds of the people.

READ ALSO: COVID-19 PALLIATIVES: Like Oyo, Ondo rejects Nigerian govt’s ‘expired’ rice

“This is to say the least, a wicked and an ungodly act considering what would have been the consequence should the Oyo State Government have gone ahead with the distribution of the 1,800 bags of rice without checking it. This act is condemnable,” he said.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now