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Monetised palliative: We only criticize procedure not concept – Kwara CSOs
HE Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq
Civil Society Organisations Working Group on COVID-19 in Kwara State, has refuted a report that it slammed the state government for monetising the palliative for some local government in the state.
The coalition in a release signed by its Convener and the Secretary, Mr Abdurrahman Ayuba and Abdulrasaq Kareem, respectively, said that it only criticised the mode of the distribution.
It explained that the earlier statement was issued to exonerate itself from the reported failure in the distribution of money in the Baruten and Kaiama local government areas of the state.
“Our attention has been drawn to an article published by the media on April 15, 2020, titled ‘COVID-19: CSOs Slam Govt for Monetising Palliative’.
“It is evident from the contents of the article that the caption does not represent the true opinion of the Kwara CSOs working group on COVID-19.
“Our original statement did not criticize the monetization of the palliative on its own, as it is the alleged yearnings of the citizens that informed the government’s decision to adopt the concept of monetization for those LGAs.
“Rather, we criticized the *procedure of distributing money to people of Kaiama and Baruten LGAs* of Kwara state by politicians *instead* of routing such monetization program through the Palliative subcommittee constituted by the government to execute all forms of palliative program during this COVID19-induced lockdown.”
“We also exonerated ourselves from the reported failure in the distribution of money in these LGAs, as none of our member CSOs participated in the monitoring of such exercise for transparency and accountability purposes.
“However, our true opinion is not to berate or slam the state government as the said caption portrayed but calling her attention to what can negate all achievements recorded so far, in the distribution of palliative to suffering masses in the state”, the statement added.
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