Nigerian Concord Newspaper
For some days now, handlers of the Benue state governor, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia and Rt. Hon. Terseer Ugbor have been at logger heads on the social media as a result of the state government’s seizure of some relief materials which the National Emergency Management Agency released to the IDPs in Kwande and Ushongo local government areas of the state.
First and foremost, let me commend the member representing Kwande/Ushongo Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Terseer Ugbor for deeming it fit to secure palliatives worth several millions of Naira from the National Emergency Management Agency for his constituents.
This act is commendable as he has tried to support the Internally Displaced Persons at the IDPs camps in Kwande and Ushongo local government areas of Benue state.
On the side of the Benue state government too, the governor, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia didn’t do any wrong by impounding the trailers carrying the said palliatives based on the tip of he got from his security aides. Alia has not done any wrong for tackling the unusual in the state capital. Unusual in the sense that palliatives meant for IDPs in Kwande and Ushongo were being offloaded at a private residence in Makurdi even though Ugbor said it was a warehouse.
For Ugbor, his explanation for offloading the said relief materials at a “ware house” in Makurdi as a result of lack of enough space in Kwande and Ushongo is understandable but the fact that the federal lawmaker ignored the third and fourth paragraphs of the release letter issued to him by NEMA is totally unacceptable.
If not for a political reason, Hon. Ugbor should have known that the best thing for him to do when he discovered that there was no enough space to keep the palliatives in Kwande and Ushongo was to officially inform the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA and probably ask for a warehouse at the agency’s office in Makurdi.
Ugbor didn’t do well for ignoring a part of the NEMA’s letter where it was stated that the cost of transportation and logistic for the conveying the said relief materials from NEMA warehouse to the point of distribution which was Kwande and Ushongo was solely the responsibility of the state government under Father Hyacinth Alia. Why did Ugbor went behind the state government to pay for the transportation and logistic if not that he was up to a charade?
Why did Ugbor fail to inform NEMA that he was taking the materials to Makurdi instead of Kwande and Ushongo which the federal agency had stated in the release letter as the point of distribution? That alone is enough for the state government to conclude that the palliatives were being diverted.
Hon. Ugbor also made a mistake for ignoring the fourth paragraph of NEMA’s release letter where it was clearly stated that the relief materials would be distributed directly to the affected persons by officials from the Agency’s North Central Zonal Office in Collaboration with the Benue State Emergency Management Agency team.
The only question is that did Ugbor officially inform Benue SEMA about the palliatives even though NEMA had clearly informed him that SEMA had a role to play in the distribution to the affected persons in Kwande and Ushongo?
To be continued
I am Aare Abiodun Oluwarotimi, De Oracular Oracle that eats jollof rice in the shrine.