COVID-19 donations: Group calls for proper accountability

LAGOS, Nigeria – An NGO, Women Arise for Change Initiative, on Monday urged government to provide proper accountability of all COVID-19 donations and their utilisation.

In a statement, Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin, President of the NGO, said the account of utilisation of all donations must be put in the public domain.

Okei-Odumakin made the call as various groups have put together huge sums of money to support government in the fight against th COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed over 70,000 people globally. Leading the pack is CACOVID, which has been able to raise about N15.325 billion in donations.

Okei-Odunmakin said that the media should insist on strict accountability, while the government must give status updates on such funds and its applications to the public on a regular basis.

“With the general complaints accompanying the distribution as well as quality of relief materials across the country, it has become imperative for government to take a closer look at the templates adopted for the exercise.

“Let each governor be atop such sensitive programme of this nature to distribute relief materials directly and monitor same effectively for the benefit of the people’s welfare,” she said.

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Okei-Odunmakin said that Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State who had earlier held strategic service position should be able to navigate this effectively.

“Messages were actually sent to the aged on LASTRA database but investigations revealed that those concerned might still be awaiting their own relief package.

Someone who spoke to us said he knew of two aged people over 60 years of age that received the message from the relief-sharing committee and who responded before the deadline of 12 noon, March 31, 2020.

“He regretted, however, that as of today, no food package has been received by them,” she said

Okei-Odumakin said for transparency and accountability sake, the LASTRA SMS responses should be collated and made public for Lagos to know how many families were reached with relief materials. (NAN)