Human Rights Lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has urged state governors still ‘hoarding’ COVID-19 palliatives in different warehouses in the country to immediately release the relief materials for distribution to citizens.
Falana, who described as crime against humanity the alleged ‘hoarding’ of the food items donated to states by the Private Sector Coalition Against Covid-19 also known as CACOVID, stated this on Monday during an interview with Arise TV monitored in Lagos.
According to him, “It is almost like a crime against humanity just as some public officers have diverted money meant for providing palliatives for internally displaced persons.
“I mean you ask yourself, what level of stealing is this? And so, this is why we are worried that the members of the ruling class in Nigeria will have to have a rethink that there are certain areas you must not get to in looting the treasuries of the country.
“Again, I want to appeal here for warehouses that have not been touched. If palliatives have been stored, I want to appeal to all the state governors in Nigeria to emulate the example of the Sokoto State governor that simply, in the view of this challenge, distributed the items.
“How can a government hoard indomie? It’s intolerable. It’s provocative. Our government will have to apologise to the Nigerian people.”
Thousands of looters had over the weekend invaded several warehouses where COVID-19 palliatives were believed to have been stored and carted away food items before the arrival of security operatives.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, on Monday, denied allegations that governors hoarded palliatives meant for distribution to Nigerians in order to ameliorate their sufferings during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
