By Jonathan Ugbal
The former adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo on national assembly matters, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa has accused members of the Peoples Democratic Party in Cross River State for diverting relief materials meant for refugees in Ata Ema community of Bakassi local government area.
The relief materials were meant to provide support for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the community whose shanties were razed in an inferno in April 2017.
Ata Ema forms part of a controversial Dayspring Island, so named by Ita-Giwa.
The materials formed part of Nigeria’s central government intervention but Ita-Giwa alleged the items were eventually found in private homes in Calabar after the Director General of the Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) John Inaku received the items from the National Refugee Commissioner.
“I want Nigerians to know this. The relief materials were for the people in Ata Ema, whose houses were engulfed by fire. Then I started hearing rumors that they were seeing those things in timber market, that they are seeing the zincs being sold off,” Ita-Giwa told newsmen in Calabar.
She said that they had gone there with the National Refugee Commissioner and a fortnight after the visit; the National Refugee Commission had intervened with the materials which were delivered in a ceremony at Cross River SEMA office with the Deputy Governor, Professor Ivara Esu in attendance with the materials yet to be delivered till date.
She continued: “In fact, the information was given to us by a whistle blower who was supposed to be part of the transaction of selling of some of the items.”
But, Inaku told AIT’s Rasheed Olanrewaju that he had delivered the goods to the Head of local Government Administration (HOLGA) in the local government area after receipt from the NRC.
As at press time, CrossRiverWatch was yet to get comments from the Bakassi HOLGA.
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