Coronavirus: Council regrets rowdiness during distribution of relief materials

The Secretary to the Council, Mr Seyi Ipinlaye, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday that the aim of the exercise was to reduce the burden of the lockdown on the community.

According to him, the number of packages received was limited, which led to the decision of distributing to the vulnerable citizens in the community, particularly the elderly above 60 years.

Ipinlaye noted that the exercise was going smoothly until they arrived at ‘Ward K,’ at 111 Road, an area in Festac Town, Lagos.

“The materials had to be rationed. We received 1,000 packs from the state for the local government.

“We made use of the councillors, religious leaders and resident associations but in some areas, the block chairmen helped us identify the elderly among them, maintaining social distancing.

“We lost control of the situation at ‘Ward K’, 111 Road because there was a break in communication between us and the councillor, who led the man that delivered the items from the state.

“We had gone back to the Council to give relief materials for those in the riverine areas to their representatives,” he told NAN.

The secretary, however said that after the distribution to the riverine representatives, the Council’s Chairman, Mr Valentine Buraimoh, and his team moved to Ward K.

“On getting there, we saw that the exercise was rowdy and the people uncontrollable.

“I had to stop the exercise because we realised that they had used a different method from the one we used in other areas for distribution.

“They didn’t even wait for the chairman, who has been monitoring the distribution to ensure nothing goes wrong, to get there before they started distributing.

“The distribution went well in other areas except in 111 Road because the councillor was overwhelmed by the crowd,” Ipinlaye said.