The Ogun State Government and the Peoples Democratic Party are trading words over the distribution of rice palliatives in the state.
Leaders of two communities have rejected the gesture in viral videos, with one community leader calling the 10kg bag of rice given to his community of 147 houses “insulting”.
Reacting, the state government, in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Dapo Abiodun, Lekan Adeniran, blamed the opposition party for the videos, alleging that some opposition agents had resorted to media blackmail to discredit the administration.
He said, “Let it be recalled that Governor Abiodun made it clear to everybody involved in sharing the palliatives that it must get to the intended beneficiaries.
“But in spite of the painstaking effort of the government in to ensure that the palliatives get to the right beneficiaries promptly, some people are unrelenting in their bids to tar the administration with negative brushes for reasons not beyond politics.
“This explains the case of the man in a recent video who claims to be a Community Development Association chairman somewhere in the state. Taking to social media and throwing cautions to the wind, he betrayed the posture of a man out to do mischief so as to score cheap political gains.”
The PDP, in response, through its Publicity Secretary, Akinloye Bankole, said as the leading opposition in Ogun, it had deliberately kept quiet since the disbursement of the palliatives commenced, expecting that the APC government “would have outgrown its trademark of serial failure and irresponsibility.”
It denied the allegations of being behind the viral video, saying that the government’s “poor implementation” of the palliatives distribution is “a brazen insult” to the people of Ogun State.
The party has asked the government to seek help immediately and deliver an unreserved apology to the people.