CHRICED decries hoarding of COVID-19 palliatives

The Centre for Human Rights & Civic Education (CHRICED) has condemned governors’ action to hoard COVID-19 palliatives, a development that led to massive looting across the country.

Executive Director, CHRICED, Comrade Ibrahim Zikirullahi, in a statement, described the action of the governors as extreme wickedness.

According to him, “we strongly condemn the insensitivity and unacceptable callousness of governors across states, who received palliatives items from the Federal Government, yet left them in warehouses to rot away. It is unbelievable that the quantum of palliatives materials available for distribution to citizens, yet out of sheer predilection for evil and lack of empathy, the governors failed to hand them over to citizens dying of hunger and starvation.

“For us, this particular set of governors, barring just a few, will have a special place in our national hall of shame for being so uncaring, callous and wicked to the extreme at a time the long-suffering people of this country needed kindness and empathy. Their refusal to cause the distribution of palliatives paid for by public funds, amounts to an act of criminal negligence against the Nigerian people.”

The group also called for compensation of such private businesses affected by the descent into anarchy seen in the last one week. The funds for such compensation should be drawn from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) COVID-19 stimulus package.