The Osun Food and Relief Committee on COVID-19 has explained that the looted items at a warehouse in Ede town were not hoarded, but were kept pending flag-off of official distribution.
Governor Adegboyega Oyetola had in April inaugurated a 21-member Food and Relief Committee to cushion the effect of COVID-19 on the people of the state.
Secretary to the committee, Alhaji Bayo Jimoh, who spoke on the incident in a statement in Osogbo, said that the looted items were donated to the committee as palliatives to the people by Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID).
Few hours after the state Gov., Oyetola, had lifted the curfew in the state, thugs invaded the warehouse located within the abandoned Cocoa Industry, Ede, carting away food items such as beans, noodles, sugar, salt, garri, rice, pastas, vegetable oil, among others.
According to Jimoh, the looted food items had nothing to do with the state government
Rather, they were the responsibility of the Food and Relief committee having been donated by CACOVID.
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He explained that the items could only be distributed after a formal flag-off by the CACOVID Office, Abuja.
He said further: “We do not have the authority to distribute the food items without approval from Abuja.
“Besides, the Committee is still expecting the rice component of the donated items, which is 40, 230 bags of 5kg.
“All these are part of the reasons the items were still in the warehouse up till the time of the invasion.
“The following items were donated; Pasta FMN – 29, 992; Pasta OLAM -10, 282; Noodles- 80, 644; Garri -40, 322; Salt- 40, 320; and Sugar – 40, 227.
“However, the rice components of the donated items are yet to be delivered until now.
“The Committee wrote to CACOVID as recently as Sept. 28, 2020, reminding it of the rice component, which is yet to be delivered.
“However, until this moment, we are yet to receive response from CACOVID.
“This is the truth about the status of the donated relief items until the unfortunate looting,”
