A total of 4, 200 Lagos State Emergency Food Relief packs from the Lagos State Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture have been shared to Council Chairmen, CDAs, Youth and Social Media Groups across Ikorodu Division of the State.
The food packs, which was brought in trucks arrived Ikorodu around on Friday, 3rd April. This was in fulfilment of Governor Sanwoolu’s promise to distribute the relief packs across all the 20 local governments and 37 local council development areas of the State to cushion the effect of the Covid-19 lockdown on the vulnerable members of the public.
Recall that, Gov Sanwoolu recently promised to provide emergency food relief and support to about 200, 000 households in the State, following the presidential directive for a total lockdown of the State to curtail the spread of the coronavirus disease in the State.
Speaking with Ikorodu Oga Radio, on behalf of his colleagues, the Executive Chairman Ikorodu local government, Hon Wasiu Adeshina commended Gov. Babajide Sanwoolu for the gesture to the local government. He noted that the distribution of the food packs was timely as it met the needs of the vulnerable members of the general public who desperately needed the food relief.
‘Commenting on the exercise, Coordinator of the relief pack distribution in Ikorodu, Dr Abiodun Fatai Abatan explained that the packs was distributed across every segments of Ikorodu namely, Council Chairman, CDAs, Youth and Social Media Groups across the division.
‘We have ensured that the food packs get to the target members of the community who are vulnerable. We have used the database the six (6) CDCs across the division to reach out to all CDAs who will get five (5) packs each. We also shared to youth groups, and the physically challenged in the community. The whole idea is to ensure that the vulnerable members of the public who cannot move around during this lockdown are able to access it’.
‘The food packs are meant for the vulnerable among the communities, not for the CDA or CDC executives. They are meant for the vulnerables, the aged, widows, unemployed, youths. It is unfortunate that we discovered that some CDA executives submitted names of their Exco members and we have educated them on the need to desist from doing this, as the State government gesture is not meant for those who can afford to feed themselves but, those who cannot’, he added.
Abatan expressed satisfaction at the level of coordination and cooperation received from all stakeholders across Ikorodu division such that, unlike the experiences from other local governments, there was no single report of any negative incident recorded during and after the distribution exercise.
A representative of one of the groups that benefitted from the government gesture, Founder of Ikorodu Ambassadors Group, Rasheed Fatuga noted that, ‘Governor Babajide Sanwoolu is trying. He should continue with the good work he is doing. We are highly impressed by this gesture, people are benefiting and it will go a long way in bringing relief to vulnerable residents’, he said.
Fatuga however noted that, efforts should be made to provide health screening to beneficiaries in future distribution in order to avoid the spread of the dreaded coronavrius disease, through the emergency food relief distribution exercise.
