Looted COVID-19 palliatives are not ours- Chairperson of VSF COVID-19 Task Force

Victims Support Fund’s (VSF) COVID-19 interventions have absolutely nothing to do with the CACOVID looted food bags in the Videos online, the VSF Task Force on COVID-19, a subsidiary of the Humanitarian organization established to take care of Victims of terrorism and violence across Nigeria clarifies.

“Those food bags been looted are not ours and have nothing to do with our VSFCOVID-19 interventions,” Toyosi-Akerele Ogunsiji, the Chairperson of VSF Task Force explained in a message to BusinessDay on Friday.

This is following the videos circulating on social media where hundreds of residents in Lagos State, on Thursday, broke into a warehouse at Monkey Village, Maza Maza, in Amuwo Odofin, and carted away Covid-19 food palliatives stored in the warehouse.

Hundreds of residents were seen moving out tons of food palliatives marked CACVID, believed to have been donated to the state by the Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID). The same incidents were reported on two other states on Friday.

“I have seen the Videos of the COVID-19 Food Bags that were meant to be shared to Vulnerable Families amidst the Pandemic that was stored in Warehouses now looted by angry Young People in Lagos and I am shocked myself,” Ogunsiji said.

As the Chairperson of the Victims Support Fund COVID-19 Task Force, Ogunsiji said she is truly proud of the transparency, accountability and probity that epitomised the process of budgeting, purchasing and distributing of the Task Force’s N1.83 Billion worth of COVID-19 Pallatives and governments, communities and citizens across Nigeria in the North East, South-South, South East and South West – Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba, Abuja, Ogun, Lagos, Ekiti, Ebonyi, Enugu, Edo and Delta between March 2020 and now.

According to her, the Task Force was supposed to have been in the North West and North Central Geo-Political Zones this October but for the pockets of unrests in few States but said the organisation will be going to Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Benue, Plateau and Niger in the first week of November 2020.

“We followed through from start to finish to ensure that all the Food and Medical Items we bought were not stolen nor converted by anyone, did we make sure our intended beneficiaries got everything directly. Watch all those Videos attached,” she said, adding that, “we also provided Technical Support and Equipment to Public Institutions like the NCDC and the Federal Ministry of Health.

Inaugurated by the Chairman of the Victims Support Fund, Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma in April 2020, the VSF Task Force on COVID-19 is currently working on setting up Boreholes and Hand Washing/Sanitation Facilities to some Low-cost Public Secondary Schools nationwide.

“Let me categorically state for the records that I can confirm that all the Food Items donated to the Lagos State Government and our 10 NGO Partners in Lagos as COVID-19 Pallatives in our #VSFCOVID19Interventions have since been distributed completely,” Ogunsiji said.

As part of its contribution to national efforts to fight COVID-19, VSF Task Force said it’s mandated to provide palliative measures to Internally Displaced Persons and other vulnerable groups around the country.

According to the mandate, the task force will provide N1billion worth of medical supplies, food, water and non-food items for IDPs and others who will face special challenges at this difficult time.