A group, Centre for Citizens with Disabilities, on Thursday revealed that only about 3,000 out of about two million Nigerians with special needs in Lagos State received COVID-19 palliatives.
Mr Kola Ogunbiyi, a member of the group, made this known at an ongoing webinar organised by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project tagged “Transparency and Accountability in Distribution of Government COVID-19 Palliatives and the Impact on the people of Lagos”.
Speaking at the event, Kola said if other stakeholders were carried along, it would have prevented politicians from hijacking the distribution.
He said, “Neutral people should have been used in the distribution of the palliatives. We monitored the distribution in about five states and noticed that the palliatives were not sufficient. Only about 3,000 out of about 2,000,000 citizens with disabilities in Lagos State were reached.”
Also speaking at the event, Director National Orientation Agency, Waheed Ishola, accused politicians of hijacking the distribution of COVID-19 palliatives.
He said the distribution of COVID-19 palliatives would have been effective if non-politicians were involved in the process.
Waheed said, “Government would have done better if non-politicians were involved in the distribution. It would have yielded more results.
“The poor distribution of palliatives had negative effects on the people.”
