Say No Campaign, a coalition of civil society organisations has commended the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) for inutiating COVID-19 palliative measures in the territory.
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But the coalition urged FCTA to coordinate the distribution of the palliative materials to ensure that the purpose of the gesture was not defeated.
Mr Ezenwa Nwagwu, the co-convener of the Say No Campaign, made this remark in a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to Ezenwa, Say No Campaign is committed to the fight against corruption, upholding transparency, accountability and justice in governance at all levels.
Nwagwu, however, said that the group would like the administration to note some issues that blurred its efforts at achieving a transparent, orderly and accountable distribution.
“As the sharing of palliative items crawls to an end, citizens are concerned on the modalities deployed by the FCTA in the distribution of the palliatives across the six area council.
“People would be intereted in knowing those that benefitted from the palliatives, the criteria for selection, the contents of the package and the intended duration for household use of the contents
Nwagwu said that the group closely monitored the palliative distribution through its Community Citizen Observers team and the Anti -Corruption Network in the six councils of FCTA.
He said that the observers reported lack of credibility, transparency and accountability in the entire process.
Nwagwu said that there were some areas that the FCTA improved and the most obvious was the stoppage of night sharing and the use of “selection pass as a determinant of eligibility.
“Having performed the same exercise in five area councils, we had thought that the FCTA would have learnt from its mistakes and become fully experienced to ensure success.
“However, that would be asking for too much as indigent community members were still expecting the items to get to them as promised by the officials.”
Nwagwu said that there were no reports of distribution exercise carried out in some major areas like, Lugbe, Lokogoma and Mpape, in spite of the number of villages and vulnerable people in those areas.
He said that where distribution took place, there were uneven number of items shared and reports of councillors politicising the exercise as they received the items for their wards in private vehicles.
He said this act was seen by some observers perceived as remuneration for voting them to office.
He said that Say No Campaign would expect a comprehensive report of the exercise to include the amount earmarked for and spent on the entire process.
He said that the group also expected the FCTA to conduct a thorough review of the process as a means of reflection and self evaluation.
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