Benue State All Progressives Congress (APC) has faulted the way and manner COVID-19 Palliative was being distributed in the state, saying that members of the opposition have been left out. The governor, Samuel Ortom is of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), hence, the opposition party and the State governor are clearly on the war path over the extension of Covid-19 palliatives to the masses. The APC wondered that Ortom was not borrowing a leaf from other states for not being apolitical when it comes to the issue of COVID-19 palliatives, insisting that it ought to be distributed for everybody irrespective of political differences.
The Acting Publicity Secretary of APC in Benue, Mr. James Ornguga in a statement, alledged that Ortom was playing politics with the pandemic as it pointedly said the governor is “dancing off the rhythm of nationally acceptable standards as both the State Task Force on Covid-19 and the local government Action Committees. “So far the Committee on COVID-19 is an assembly of PDP members and loyalists of the governor thereby limiting the effectiveness of their reach and tailoring their efforts towards satisfying only members of their party.
“More worrisome, since the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development announced plans to send the Federal Government’s palliatives directly to state governments, PDP members in Benue have surreptitiously been compiling lists, alleged to comprise of 300 beneficiaries per each of the 276 council wards of the state who are to benefit from the expected federal government incentives.
“We find this attempt by the Benue State government to again sideline the opposition from benefiting from incentives emanating from the APC-led Federal Government as the highest height of wickedness and we are ready to resist such attempts in all forms.”
Reacting, Governor Ortom described the allegation by the APC as blatant lie. The allegation is “ill advised, poorly crafted, stained with malice and without any convincing evidence and will not assist the state government to fight and overcome the global pandemic threatening the nation and state in particular.”
Ortom, in a statement by his Principal Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Nathaniel Ikyur, said: “It is false for the APC to allege that the PDP government in the state is ‘dancing off the rythm of nationally acceptable standards in the fight against Covid-19. “Or that the apointment of members of the State Action Committee on COVID19 were only PDP members or loyalists of the governor. How blatant can the APC go in peddling falsehood.”
