Coalition Against COVID (CA-COVID), a private sector initiative supporting the fight to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in the country, has released 107,546 food palliative packs to the Lagos State government for distribution to the residents of the state.
The food items were received on behalf of the state government by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu at the Lagos House, Alausa, on Tuesday evening.
Sanwo-Olu shortly after distributed part of the items to some beneficiaries who were present at the ceremonial handover of the food palliatives.
Speaking at the event on behalf of the state government, the acting commissioner for agriculture, Abisola Olusanya said the food items were meant for indigent residents and the elderly.
According to Olusanya, a single beneficiary will get each pack containing 10 kilograms of rice, five kilograms of garri, five kilograms of sugar, one kilogram of salt, two cartons of noodles (Indomie) and one carton of pasta, for his or her family.
Read also: Covid-19 could push some universities over the brink
The commissioner said the food items were being repackaged by the ministry of agriculture to ensure that each beneficiary gets the right quantity of items.
She added that in terms of the distribution modality, the state would borrow a leaf from the experience garnered during the lockdown period when it pioneered the distribution of over 50,000 food beneficiary packs.
“We have these food items at a location, where our team from the ministry is doing the repackaging, to ensure that a single beneficiary pack gets to the right people and also with the right quantity. We do not want a situation where they receive the items and they claim that they have not received garri or they have not received rice.
We have taken the pains to get bags marked, to print on them the Lagos State logo, the CA-COVID logo and to put these items in each pack, such that we have transparency across board.”
“Nonetheless, with regards to the 107,546 packs, we are still repackaging and so far, the team has been able to repackage about 50,000 beneficiary packs. Until we finish repackaging, before we can ascertain and say this is the quantity that we have actually received as Lagos State.”
The state coordinator of CA-COVID, Amaechi Okobi, commended the Lagos government’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He urged for equitable distribution of the items, saying “the efforts to get this food and palliatives are gigantic but to distribute the food items is even more because we know all the problems we would face.
So, I ask on behalf of the CA-COVID that you continue to support to ensure that every last Nigerian that the commissioner mentioned gets these items. It is critical. It impacts our credibility. It impacts the work of serious people that want to actually do something.”
