Abia State Govt Says Its Transparent In Distribution of Palliatives.

Steve Unegbu, Umuahia

The Abia State Government  says it  has been fair and transparent in the distribution  of the four tranches of the  Federal Government palliatives to the citizens.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Policies and Intervention, Rev Fr. Christian Anokwuru stated this while briefing the press on the distributions of the  federal government palliatives across the State.

He said that the State government received a total of 16,800 bags of 50kg rice and 13,260 bags of 50kg maize , converted the maize to rice through selling the maize to buy rice, as well as adding more 4,800 bags of 50 kg rice.

to it and making it a total of 30,800 bags of 50kg rice which was distributed across the state in the first batch.

Rev Fr. Anokwuru noted that the state equally took delivery of 24,000 bags of 25 kg rice in the second batch wherein it allocated 19,524 bags to Abia civil servants from Salary Grade Levels 01 to 08 while 4,476 bags were distributed to persons with disability,Abia Correctional Center, Amaudo Itumbauzo Center for mentally ill destitutes, Orphanages, widows among others through the Ministry of Women Affairs in collaboration with Office of the wlWife of the Governor.

According to him,  the state government in the third batch received 13,260 bags of 50kg Maize and 3,196 bags of 25kg Garri where in it distributed 601 bags of maize and 144 bags of Garri to to each of the 17 LGAS,156 bags of Maize and 38 bags of Garri to faith based organizations while boarding schools got 23 bags of Maize and 6 bags of Garri.

In the fourth batch which came in in June 2024, Rev Fr Anokwuru said that the state received 8,900 bags of Urea and NPK Fertilizers wherein it has mapped out days to distribute same across the 15 LGAS excluding Aba North and Aba South LGAS as well as few wards in Obingwa and Osisioma LGAs which are urban areas  with minimal farming activities.

He  also announced the distribution of federal government fertilizer palliatives to farmers in rural and semi urban areas in the state.

He disclosed that Umuahia North, Umuahia South and Isialangwa South LGAs will take their turn on Tuesday 24th September 2024 while that of Ohafia ,Bende and Isialangwa North would be on Wednesday 25th September 2024.

According to him, “Thursday 26th September would  be the turn of Ugwunagbo,Osisioma and Ukwa East ,Isuikwuato,Umunneochi and Ukwa west would get theirs on Friday 27th September where as Saturday 28th September will be the turn of Arochukwu,Obingwa and Ikwuano LGAs”

He said in recognition of of the importance of agriculture in the state’s economy, the state designed the distribution plan to support farmers in both rural and semi -rural areas. He assured that the state government is committed to ensuring that all palliatives from both the federal government and state would get to the target audience and would continually be distributed transparently