The Osun State Government has begun receiving 43 trucks of food palliatives, including Garri and Corn, from the Federal Government of Nigeria.
This was made known in a press release by the commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment of Osun State Hon Oluomo Kolapo Alimi on Monday.
The commissioner noted that the distribution of the food palliatives will commence tomorrow, Tuesday, July 30, 2024.
Alimi said ”Accordingly, the distribution of the food palliatives to the would be beneficiaries throughout the State will commence, tomorrow, Tuesday, 30th July, 2024 and it is going to be carried out in line with an already spelt out template given by the FG which is in concomitant with the one also already mapped out by the Osun State Government.”
According to the press release, the consignment includes “4 trucks of 25kg bags of Garri, with each truck containing 1260 bags, and 39 trucks of 50kg bags of Corn, containing 600 bags each.”
The Federal Government has charged Osun State a haulage fee of N67,422,000. Out of this amount, the state has already paid N45,000,000, leaving a balance of N22,422,000 to be settled before the remaining consignments can be delivered.
The palliatives are being managed by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in collaboration with the Osun State Emergency Management Agency (OSEMA). “For transparency, record, and accountability, officials from the Nigeria Police, ICPC, DSS, EFCC, and NEMA are on the ground to monitor the offloading and documentation of the consignments,” the statement read
The state government started receiving and offloading the trucks on July 11, 2024, at the OSEMA warehouse in Osogbo, the state capital. By Sunday, July 28, 2024, Osun had received 4 trucks of Garri and 21 trucks of Corn. “All 4 trucks of Garri and 16 trucks of Corn have been offloaded. The remaining 5 trucks of Corn will be offloaded today,”
Osun State is also responsible for the cost of offloading and distributing the food palliatives to beneficiaries across the state’s local governments.
The Osun state government assured residents, particularly the most vulnerable populations, of adherence to the laid-down distribution templates. “No one, especially the most targeted vulnerable population, will be shortchanged during the distribution of the food items,” the statement concluded.
