By Gift Olivia Samuel, The Sight News
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has expressed concerns over the unfolding incidents across the country of mass storming and looting of relief welfare materials and provisions stored away in different warehouses.
This is as the Congress noted, that these relief palliatives and provisions are believed to have been procured by government to relieve citizens of the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown and the associated hardship.
In a statement on Monday, the NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, demanded that the Federal Government should order the immediate release of all the welfare provisions and materials to citizens.
Wabba, who stated that the NLC had in the past demanded for the distribution of the palliative provisions in a transparent, and inclusive manner, with active participation of mass-based citizen groups, said the demand is to forestall riotous plundering of the remaining relief palliatives.
According to him, “It is obvious that the palliative provisions that were procured by government for immediate distribution to the mass of our people at their critical time of need and to assuage the hardship occasioned by the lockdown were hoarded and held back by some government officials.
“The reasons for this have not been made known to the public. We also understand that many of the palliative provisions are already getting rotten in the warehouses where they were stored.
“While we condemn the ensuing mass looting of both the COVID-19 palliatives and non-COVID-19 palliative materials, we equally deplore the conduct of some government officials who stored away relief materials that should have been distributed to the masses of our people at their very trying times of need”, he remarked.
Wabba, while noting that this directive should apply to state governments, many of which are chiefly culprit in this regard, called on the Federal Government to investigate the conduct of those who hoarded the palliative provisions.
In his words, “Government officials cannot afford to create a scenario that precipitate mass unrests at this very delicate and fragile milieu in global history.
“A stitch in time would save nine!”
