Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC), the apex Igbo youth socio-cultural organization, has called for forensic investigation into the activities of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Crisis Management, led by Sadiya Farouq.
OYC, in a press release signed by its President General, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro and Secretary General, Okwu Nnabuike which was forwarded to DAILY POST on Tuesday, alleged that the Ministry has sectionalized the government’s provision of stimulus packages to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on the citizenry.
According to the release, “OYC dispute the figures and claims of Ministers Farouq and Lai Mohammed, that over 100B Naira had been disbursed as a ruse. Igbo Youths insists that 100 billion palliative funds had been diverted into personal pockets. There was systematic looting by avoiding a credible banking process of using banks to reach out to Nigerians with BVN for the palliative care and stimulus packages. But indulging in physical distribution and disbursement of the palliative money put doubts on the minds of Nigerians, who are questioning the credibility of the claims of disbursement of 100b naira palliative money to Nigerians.
“There’s so much hunger and frustration in the country caused by the lockdown as the preventative method to stop the spread of COVID-19. Nigerians are gradually getting frustrated daily. We call on President Muhammadu Buhari to extend the palliative packages to the South, as majority of poor Nigerians reside in the South. The approval of 150M dollars from Sovereign Wealth Funds by Buhari should be shared among the three tiers of government to cushion effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. We also pray for the quick recovery of all the index cases in Nigeria, especially those that had recently tested negative including Chief of Staff to Mr President, Mallam Abba kyari”.
On the plan to invite Chinese doctors to contain the coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria, Ohanaeze criticized President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government and called on all patriotic Nigerians to rise up and persuade federal government not to escalate the situation over the coronavirus pandemic with the acceptance of the Greek gift, by inviting Chinese doctors to assist in containing the spread of COVID-19 disease.
The Igbo youth body, advised the federal government to reach out to Indian or Cuban doctors through her foreign missions in both countries for the containment of the pandemic.
It posited that engaging the Chinese medical experts may escalate the index cases.
Meanwhile, Director-General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Dr Garba Abari, has explained that the Federal Government was not importing Chinese medical experts to directly take charge of the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Clarifying misconceptions generated, Abari said the 18-man Chinese medical team were only coming to share experiences with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), considering that China has already fought the disease.
According to him, they will be sharing experiences on how the pandemic was handled in China and giving expert suggestions to our medical teams.
