Covid-19 Palliatives: Kano Residents, CSOs, Lament Hijack by Politicians
INFOMEDIA – A number of stakeholders including Kano Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission, Civil Society Groups and People with special needs have decried the irregularities recorded during the last two batches of COVID-19 palliative distributions in Kano over alleged hijack by politicians and poor monitoring of the distribution to the last stage of delivery targeting poorest of the poor residents.
Though the Kano Fund Raising Committee on COVID-19 palliatives had claimed to have generated over N745 million naira cash and food items as well as other relief materials worth billions of naira from Corporate Bodies, State, Local and Federal Government with many well-to-do individuals, stakeholders believe the exercise lacked transparency and accountability mechanisms.
The Kano Civil Society Organisation had earlier raised the alarm over alleged deliberate exclusion of the Group in the composition of the palliative committee to ensure adequate monitoring and evaluation. Also, people with special needs decried the composition of the 35-man committee over alleged marginalization.
No Clearly Defined Modalities for Selection of Beneficiaries – CSO
Executive Director of African Center for Transparency and Anticorruption Advocacy in Kano, Ismail Auwal, told our correspondent that there were no clearly defined modalities and criteria for the selection of the beneficiaries and the palliatives distributed did not include Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) rather, the only foodstuff.
“There were no explanations from the government on; how much was used to procure the palliatives? Who procured the palliatives? What are the sources of the money used to procure the palliatives? And how much the palliatives cost per beneficiary?” he added.
Kano Civil Society Organisation Alleges Hijack by Politicians
Chairman of Kano Civil Society Groups, Ibrahim Waiya lamented that the exercise has been hijacked by some politicians, hence questioning its credibility. “firstly we need to applaud the good intention of government on the COVID-19 palliative distribution.
However, the whole process was overtaken or I could say being politicized.
The process was not transparent because up till now, nobody could tell you actually the total amount of money that was received by the fundraising committee in Kano and the quantity of the items they have collected.”
Waiya also commented on the inefficiency of the committee due to its limited capacity in monitoring the palliative to the last beneficiaries. “the committee has only 35 members or thereabout, it is humanly impossible for them to reach every part of Kano State, that is the reason why we expect them to engage the CSOs and other relevant stakeholders who have structures across the 44 local government areas of the State to ensure transparency and accountability” he added.
People Living With Disability Protest Exclusion
In the meantime, the vulnerable people with special needs in the State also decried the exclusion of their members in the composition of the palliative committee and the distribution of the foods items and N2, 000 cash.
Chairman of the Joint National Association for Persons with Disability, Kano Branch, Engr. Musa Muhammed Sa’ada, told our correspondent that his members were excluded despite their several appeals and a formal letter written to the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Usman Alhaji in respect of their plights during the mandatory lockdown.
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“We have Chairmen in all the 44 LGAs in Kano and I have their per day data, they have not received palliative from the Government. Also at the State level, we contacted the Chairman of the Fund Raising and Palliative Committee, he said no PWDs in the program. We wrote a letter to the SSG who referred the letter to the committee, I have seen the letter and the date it was delivered to the committee, for now as I am talking to you, there is no action taken by the committee.” He lamented.
Kano Public Complaints and Anti- Corruption Commission accuses some highly placed people of Palliative Diversion
However, the prosecution of Kumbotso Local Government Council Chairman, Alhaji Kabiru Ado Panshekara, by the Commission over alleged criminal breach of trust and making a false statement regarding the distribution of COVID-19 palliatives in his area was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
In the suit, the Commission listed Panshekara’s alleged offence to include distributing palliatives to security personnel, comprising of the police, Department of State Services, Immigration and Hisbah guards in his area, saying that the action was a violation the Provision of Section 22, 23 and 26 of the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission Law 2008 (as amended).
The Commission insisted that all political office holders, civil servants at federal, state and local government levels, political party officials at ward level, traditional rulers, imams, pastors and casual workers at Federal, State and Local Government were all excluded from the beneficiaries of the COVID-19 palliative materials.
According to the Commission’s Chairman, Muhuyi Magaji Rimigado: “People tried to take advantage of that palliative distribution to corner the materials for their own personal use and the most unfortunate event we noticed was that it is done with the involvement of people in high positions especially at the local level”.
Palliative Committee Dismisses Alleged Politicization and Poor Coordination
Responding to the allegations, Publicity Chairman of the Palliative Committee, who doubles as the State Commissioner for Information, Muhammed Garba in an exclusive interview with our correspondent denies the alleged politicization and poor coordination of the exercise.
He claimed that the committee successfully distributed the palliatives, including food items and N2, 000 each to 100, 000 households and eight people had so far benefitted in each polling units across the 44 local Government areas of the State.
“In each polling unit in Kano, four poorest of the poor benefitted in the first batch, the second batch is the same thing, four people also benefitted, which means in each polling units, eight people have benefitted, in award, you can find about 10, 15… polling units and our target is three hundred thousand households, so that is the system we adopted.”
Findings of our correspondent at the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC indicates that Kano has 11, 222 polling points, the figure when multiplied by eight beneficiaries in each polling point, is equivalent to 89, 778, but the Commissioner later clarified that the balance of 10, 222 were extended to prisons and orphanage homes.
The Commissioner said apart from the major contributions in cash, food items and materials running into billions of naira, donated the Local Government, Federal Government, Corporate Bodies and private individuals, the State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje also released N285 million (in two batches) to enable them give the beneficiaries N2, 000 each and cater for other logistics.
We spent millions of naira on logistics including re-bagging of 50kg grains (comprising 110 trucks of rice, millet, sorghum and maize donated by the federal government ) to 25kg, loading and offloading of the grains as well as transportation of the food items to the respective LGAs, wards and each polling point. He said.
After painstaking follow-ups and fruitless attempts to access the financial statements of the committee following the alleged lack of accountability, the Commissioner refused to release a copy of the committee’s activities detailing its financial records so far, rather he verbally explained to our correspondent via telephone that the committee had spent over N668m out of the over N745m generated so far.
Solacebace
