The Minister for Niger Delta Development, Abubakar Momoh, has accused Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki of rebranding rice and other relief items sent to the state by the Federal Government.

The minister made the allegation while reacting to claims that the federal government failed to deliver on his promise to distribute 20 trucks of rice to some states, including Edo State, to cushion the effects of food inflation in the country.

The Deputy Director of Media of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Organisation in the September 21 governorship election in Edo State, Rev. Olu Martins, had made the claims, saying: “The Edo State Government did not receive any rice from the federal government or Aliko Dangote Foundation.

“Mr President did not mention in his speech on Sunday that rice was given to any of the states. It may be that it is still in the offing, because if he sent 20 trucks of rice to Edo State, which ministry did it go through? Which ministry or agency received it in Edo?”

Reacting in an interview with Channels TV on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, Momoh said: “I think any governor that says that he has not received 20 trucks of rice is not being fair.

“In the case of Edo State that you just mentioned, look at what happened, you see on social media, and television how people went into warehouses, broke into warehouses and brought out these goods.

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“The Edo governor, for instance, got his own and I can say in clarity that there are some state governors who of course engineered this process. Even the governor of Edo State you have just mentioned, recently when the protest started, he was the one that organised people at King Square and addressed them and at the end of the day, what did he say? He said I want to carry your message to the federal government in Abuja.

“We expect such a governor to address the problems in Edo State. How many roads has he been able to tar? How many erosions problems has he been able to solve? But rather what he does is that if the government brings relief like this, he repacks them and puts his name. We saw what happened during COVID-19 and that is something that is happening today.

“We have seen so many governors distributing relief materials, both rice and fertilizers. For instance, I watched the Bayelsa State Governor, directing that no person in government should get any dime from this rice. And the same thing on other states that I watched on TV telling them the same thing. But in the case of Edo State, there is nothing like that.”

The Star