Abia State governor,   Alex Otti, has said the grain palliative from the Federal Government to the state will be distributed transparently and equitably.

Mr Otti said this on Wednesday during a meeting with stakeholders and inauguration of a distribution committee, at the Government House, Umuahia.

The governor, represented by his Chief of Staff, Dr. Caleb Ajagba, said that setting up of a committee was part of the state government’s efforts to ensure that the palliative would be evenly distributed in the state.

He said that the composition of the committee aligned with the directives of the Federal Government through the National Emergency Management Agency.

Mr Otti also said that the committee would have the responsibility of overseeing the distribution of the grains to cushion the effects of high cost of food items caused by the removal of fuel subsidy.

He said that the state government had received a letter from the Federal Government on the allocation of grains to the state.

He said that the grains allocated to Abia include “663 metric tonnes of maize representing 13,260 bags of 50Kg and 79.9 metric tonnes of garri, representing 3,196 bags of 25 kg to be shared equally among the local government areas.’’

Mr Otti said that the state had not received any food items from the government yet, adding that the state Ministry of Agriculture had provided a warehouse for storage upon arrival.

He said that the government would use an effective mechanism to take a comprehensive inventory of the expected food items to ensure transparency and accountability in the distribution process.

Mr Otti further said that 20 per cent of the grains would be allocated to faith-based organisations, while three per cent of the food items would be distributed to boarding schools across the state.

 He restated the government’s commitment to transparency in managing aid received from the Federal Government, international and local agencies, to ensure fair and equitable distribution to the people.

Mr Otti said, “We want to stress that this is a transparent administration and so we don’t want to keep anyone in doubt or in the dark as to what accrues to this state. The same way we have demonstrated capacity, competence and transparency in the management of this state.

“Everything that accrues to this state whether from the federal, the international donor agencies or the local organisations will always be declared so that the citizens will know what they are receiving.

 “Whatever they are receiving, the people will also know how what is being received is being made available to everyone so that at the end of it all, they will know that indeed, a new Abia is here.

“That is why we have called on everyone here today so that we can sit round the table and be able to take stock of what has been made available and then decisively deal with the issue of how they will be made available to the end users.

“We also want to encourage the level of transparency that the governor has shown to be replicated everywhere across board.’’

The Federal Government had embarked on distribution of 42,000 metric tonnes of grains to states to address the rising cost of food in the country.

(NAN)