Anambra State Government must desist from making the distribution of fuel subsidy palliatives a party affair and ensure that the actual poor and vulnerable targeted are reached.
This is according to the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC gave the warning on Thursday.
There is the allegation that the palliatives are now being distributed using the structure of the ruling political party in Anambra state, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, excluding the originally-intended beneficiaries.
According to Mr Uzochukwu Eminent, the State Secretary of Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, the government has refused to make the exercise transparent, dealing only with members of the ruling party in the state.
Decrying the process, Eminent regretted that by the arrangement, the very poor and the lowly will not get the palliatives, rather, party loyalists who may have no need for them will eventually end up having them.
“In Amorka Ward in Ihiala LGA area of the state where I come from, they have made it a party thing and you can ask all over the state and see for yourself.
“Only APGA members are the ones receiving where they have started doing so.
“This is totally wrong because the palliatives were provided by the Federal Government for the generality of the suffering population across the country, not for party people.
”The distribution should follow the local government system but of course, you know how our local government system here is. They were appointed by the APGA government at the state level, so they do the bidding of the person who appointed them.
“So, what they are doing is not distribution of any sort. They are only compensating their party members with the people’s common patrimony,” he alleged.
However, the Chairman of the Civil Society in the state, Prince Chris Azor disagrees with the IPAC position, insisting that the government has been transparent enough.
According to him, the state government have involved the Community-Based Organizations and other critical stakeholders in the distribution process.
“We at the Civil Society were invited at the meeting where they drew the template for the distribution and they made it clear that the CSOs will be involved from the Local Government to the ward level.
“The much we know, they are distributing it across the 326 wards in the state and we are getting reports that many have started receiving.
“What you have is a state committee, a local government committee and the ward committee.
“In the ward committees, you have religious leaders, the councillors, women and youth groups and other relevant stakeholders, including the CBOs.
“So, we believe the process has been as transparent as it can be,” he said.
Azor noted that although there may be a little skirmishes here and there in very few places, it shouldn’t be enough to generalize that the state government has made the process a party affair.
He said the civil society is integrating reports from the members across the 326 wards on the distribution exercise and by the end of the process, they will review the entire process and advise government accordingly.
