Wike Exempted Us From COVID-19 Palliatives, APC Alleges

Wike Exempted Us From COVID-19 Palliatives, APC Alleges

POLITICS DIGEST – A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has accused the Rivers State Palliative Committee of excluding members of the opposition party from the ongoing distribution of foodstuffs in the state.

Eze, in a statement in Port Harcourt, described the palliative measures to ease the lockdown pains in the state caused by the coronavirus pandemic as embarrassing, inadequate and not commensurate with the N2bn budgeted for the scheme.

Governor Nyesom Wike, had while inaugurating the palliative committee warned against politicising the scheme.

Wike said: “The distribution of these foodstuffs has nothing to do with party membership. It should get to all less privileged people”.

But Eze said the APC members were being excluded from the distribution of foodstuff, noting that the development exposed the inability of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to address issues of critical importance like public welfare.

Eze, who was a former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New People’s Democratic Party (NPDP), insisted that the committee headed by Amb. Desmond Akawo, the newly elected PDP state Chairman was targeting mainly the PDP members.

Commenting on the handling of the Carveton Helicopters’ pilots and the passengers by the state government, Eze argued that the governor should have opted for a more pragmatic approach instead of heating up the polity.

He said subjecting the pilots and passengers to screening to determine their COVID-19 status would have been enough measure rather than charging them to court for carrying out lawful orders of the Federal Government to save the nation’s economy.

Eze commended churches in the state for rejecting the temporary relaxation of the lockdown order for religious activities, which he claimed forced the governor to cancel his earlier position, that would have endangered the lives of Rivers people.

He urged the governor to consult widely each time critical decisions, especially those touching on law and citizens’ welfare were to be taken to save him from policy somersaults.

Eze lamented the swiftness of the arrest and throwing into detention of the two Caverton Pilots by the Judiciary.

He said: “Nigerians can now see the biased nature of the Rivers judiciary of doing whatever the governor wants them to do. This was one of the many reasons why APC couldn’t produce even a councilor in Rivers State during the last general elections.

“The Presidency and indeed Nigerians should now see what APC in Rivers State is suffering in the hands of Governor Wike in collaborating with well-known internal enemies of APC to keep the APC in Rivers State in perpetual comatose”.