FCT Distributed All Covid-19 Palliatives, Minister Says Protesters Looted Food Reserve

The Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory, Rahamatu Tijjani Aliyu, has maintained that protesters who broke into warehouses in the territory did not loot covid-19 food palliatives as those had been fully distributed before the EndSARS protests.

Speaking on behalf of the minister in an interview with THE WHISTLER, the Special Adviser Media, Austine Elemne, noted that all relief Items were distributed to the six-area councils of the FCT, and that what remained were the leftovers and the strategic food reserve.

He said: “Items were distributed to other strategic stakeholders, like the Non-Government Organisation (NG0s), police, frontline workers, youth groups and Civil Society Organisation (CSOs) including the media
and the Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ).

“I will tell you in fairness and truth that those items were over 90% distributed and what was left in some stores especially in Garki was water and some cartons of Indomie for emergencies”.

This website had reported that the police had pre-empted the invasion of the warehouse located at Cyprian Ekwensi building in Garki on Saturday, October 24.

“Till today you can still go there and see for yourself the store was over 90% empty so there was no hoarded palliative in Garki because that is our major store. Garki and Tunga Maji are the two major stores for palliative in the FCT,” Elemne said.

According to him, there was also no palliative store at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) camp, Kubwa, as suspected hoodlums carted away only mattresses and computers.

“Then the major one was in Gwagwalada where looting was massive. It is the warehouse for the private sector driven initiative, the CACOVID.

“These are private firms that put their resources together to assist the government in this trying period, and they do it across the 36 states and the FCT.

“And let it be known that FCT received their consignment on the 12th of October 2020,” Elemne stressed, saying the distribution of palliative in Gwagwalada was halted due to the EndSARS protest.

“Before then, we have submitted the list of beneficiaries to the CACOVID and they insisted they want to be part and parcel of how these items are distributed, whether they are distributed equitably. But before they had arrived at a fixable date, EndSARS protest had started. Some of them cannot come from Lagos because the road was blocked, and then looting started,” he said.

Idu Warehouse For Food Preservation

Meanwhile, the aide of the minister urged residents to question the source of food items they purchase this season as the majority of items stored in Idu ‘warehouse’ were chemicalized for preservation, and not for consumption.

Elemne stressed that contrary to popular opinion, the warehouse located at the Idu Industrial Layout, Dakibiyu village in Jabi district is a strategic grain reserve for food security in the FCT, and has been in practice for over 30 years.

“The administration always buys up farm produce for farmers during harvest time and store them during the dry season, they now sell it back to farmers at a very reduced price.

“Unfortunately, most of the items there are even chemicalize for preservation and are not for consumption,” he said.

Noting that items like beans may not be useful to the looters because they were chemicalized, he said: “The only tragedy here is that it should not go into the public because some of them are not human consumption again.

“Then the few Indomie carton that people sighted in that strategic reserve were items for flood victims in Gwagwalada, Kwali and other area councils,” Elemne stated.

The Idu food reserve was looted by suspected hoodlums on October 26. A security guard at the warehouse who spoke to our correspondent said the three-unit complex was emptied by the looters.