I won’t distribute FG’s relief materials to my people – Gov. Udom

Governor Udom Emmanuel said he will not share the rice from the Federal Government of Nigeria to the people of Akwa Ibom.

The Governor, who stated this Monday evening during a media chat, said the rice showed signs of decay and may not be suitable for consumption.

He said: “for the Relief materials from Federal Government, we got 1800 bags of custom bonded warehouse rice.

“That gift is not good for me to distribute to my citizens. We have sent it for test, but it doesn’t look good enough for consumption.”

However, Udom also noted that his government has so far spent about one Billion Naira to tackle coronavirus pandemic in Akwa-Ibom.

He added that the Restriction of Movement order in the State will be relaxed when the situation improves.

He said that a gradual reopening of the system on the order of economic importance of sectors would be considered.

The Governor noted that the 300-bed isolation centre at Ituk Mbang was near completion.

He said COVID-19 never met Akwa Ibom State unprepared as it already had isolation centre with 25 bed/modern facilities, 13 ventilators, functional intensive care unit, and digitised/functional situation room and call centre manned by 50 medical experts.

On the proposed random testing for COVID-19 in the State, Gov. Emmanuel said it was a waste of government resources to embark on such.

He added that anyone who needed to be tested would be tested according to the guidelines of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

He said, “It would absolutely be a waste of resources if we go on random testing. No one who needed to be tested that had not been tested. Everything we do follows NCDC guidelines.

“On lockdown, I will come back to announce very soon. We were waiting to also consult with other States because in situations like this, no state can work in isolation.

“For Akwa Ibom State, once we have a trend analysis and the graph is showing downward, we will do a gradual reopening of the system based on the economic importance of those sectors.”