Looted rice store in Edo owned by Christian feeding programme vendor – CAN

Irekpono Omoike, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Edo State chapter, says the vandalised residence where bags of rice were looted by hoodlums during the protest in Urora, in Ikoba-Okha local government area of Edo State, belongs to a vendor contracted by the Edo State CAN Implementation Committee for the Christian Feeding Programme.

Omoike stated this at a press conference at the Chancellery of the Catholic Archdiocese of Benin, in Benin City. He noted that the Christian Feeding Programme which is in its second phase of distributing relief materials to vulnerable Christian groups was funded by the Edo State government with N2 billion.

He said, “There is a very important issue to correct a wrong notion that is circulating that the rice being distributed by the State Government is rice supplied by the Federal Government and re-bagged. This is misinformation. It is a very wrong notion that needs to be corrected.

“Earlier this year, the Edo State chapter of the CAN had a meeting with Governor Godwin Obaseki where he shared his concern on how to reach out to vulnerable persons and the poor who are bearing the hardship of the economic downturn in the country.

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“After the meeting, an implementation committee for the Christian Feeding Programme was set up where we designed a programme on how to reach out to the poor with food palliatives. The governor released the 1st batch of the funding for the programme, which is 1 billion naira to purchase rice to be distributed. This was done and in May 2024 we flagged off the distribution of the first phase at the Baptist Convention Ground in Benin City.

He said in the First Phase of the Programme 60,000 bags of 10kg rice were distributed, noting “In Edo South, 27,000 bags were distributed to the churches across the LGAs, while in Edo North, we had 18,000 bags distributed. In Edo Central, we had 50,000 bags. The total that was distributed in that first batch was 60,000 bags of 10kg of rice.

Omoike noted, “For the second phase, another batch of N1 billion was released by the government to replicate the exercise. We purchased another consignment, distributed it through the structure of CAN.