As parts of effort to cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal, the Ondo State government on Tuesday commenced the distribution of palliative items to vulnerable households.
The distribution, which began at Isua, headquarters of Akoko South East Local Government Area of the state, many vulnerable households filed out to receive the food items.
State Commissioner for Information, Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, assured that the food items procured for distribution would get to the appropriate beneficiaries.
She disclosed that 1,200 bags of rice would be distributed to 6,000 vulnerable households in Akoko South East Local Council.
The commissioner insisted that the distribution is not based on the political leanings of the beneficiaries.
She said: “Today, we are kicking off the distribution of palliatives to Ondo State residents and it happens that the four local government areas in Akoko are the first to be distributed.
“There will be five people to a bag of rice and here, we have trucks coming in to take the palliatives to various towns in Akoko South East comprising Ipesi, Sosan, Ifira, Epinmi, Isua among others. We have 1,200 bags of rice for Akoko South East and we are targeting 6,000 households in the local government.”.
According to Mrs. Ademola-Olateju, the palliatives were part of the delivery taken from the Federal Government and the ones procured by the state government.
She listed religious groups, market women, and traders’ associations among others as beneficiaries of the palliatives.
“We have selected the most vulnerable households but based on our experience while we are drawing the list, we have seen that we will go very far. We have a Muslim community, Christian Association, Market women, traders association, tailoring association, and Iyalojas among others.
“We have been very diligent in making this selection. We will learn a lot of lessons from the distribution. Whatever lessons we learn, we are going to share it with the main committee and we hope we don’t learn the bad lessons and even if we learn the bad lessons, we hope to gain from it because this is the first tranche and lesson learnt we are improved upon.
“We will repeat the successes recorded and it there is any bad lesson, we will mitigate it in other time, so we will not make the same mistake again”.
While retreating that other local governments in the state will soon get there share of the Palliatives, she assured that besides rice, other local food items would be procured and distributed to the poor people in the state using the existing data in the communities in the state.
“For local governments like Idanre, Odigbo, Okitipupa among others coming behind us, we will will tell them our experiences in the field today,” Ademola-Olateju explained.