The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Edo State chapter, Apostle Irekpono Omoike has explained that the vandalised residence where bags of rice were looted by some people in Urora, in Benin City, Edo State, is owned by a vendor contracted by Edo CAN for Christian Feeding Programme.
It would be recalled that a private residence in the Arora area in Benin suspected to have been used to hoard food (rice) palliative meant for Edo residents was during the Thursday #EndBadGovernance vandalised by some hoodlums.
Following the development, the Edo State Government and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state engaged in a war of words over the ownership of looted rice.
Giving the clarification through a press conference in Benin, Onoike noted that the Christian Feeding Programme of the state CAN which is in its second phase of distributing relief materials to vulnerable Christian groups was funded by the Edo State Government with 2 billion naira.
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 Christian Association of Nigeria 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.
“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 further explained that in the first phase of the programme, 60,000 bags of 10kg rice were distributed, noting In Edo South, 27,000 bags were distributed through the churches in Edo South.
This is even as he claimed that in Edo North, 18,000 bags of rice were distributed. In Edo Central, we had 50,000 bags, making the total bags of rice distributed in that first batch to be 60,000 bags of 10kg rice.
“For the second phase, another batch of 1 billion naira was released by the governor to replicate the exercise. We purchased another consignment and distributed it through the structure of CAN.
“This process has been ongoing since July. In the last few days, we have successfully distributed to all the churches that did not receive the 1st batch across the 18 LGAs.
“In this batch, we were able to reach 56,250. There’s another consignment in this last phase, just as we did in the 1st phase, meant for churches not under CAN, since this was really done in partnership with CAN,” Omoike added
According to the Secretary of the CAN Implementation Committee for the Christian Feeding Programme, Rev. Osagie Ehrunmwunse, the truck in the viral video where bags of rice were looted is owned by a logistic company distributing the rice.
He explained: “The truck supplying down from Ekpoma had a breakdown the previous night. The rice was meant for the Seventh Days Aventis, Letter Day Saints, vulnerable children, orphanages, and widows among others.
“In an attempt for us to take that rice for safekeeping, that was when the products were looted by hoodlums. So that was exactly what happened on Thursday morning.
“We are happy that nobody died in the process, or got injured. But like Mr. Chairman was responding, it’s disheartening to know that people have to twist the information by saying it’s federal government rice.”
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