Consistent with empathic lifestyle, the former Deputy Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly and member representing Mbaitolu State Constituency, Rt. Hon. Okey Onyekanma, is set to distribute relief materials to his constituents amid the biting hardship, hunger, despondency engendered by the lockdown to curb the wild spread Covid-19 pandemic.
The items include several cartons of noodles, bags of rice and beans, cartons of power vegetable oil, cartons of Peak milk and loaves of bread.
These items according to him would be shared to 50 households in each of the 34 autonomous communities in Mbaitoli LGA, the most populous local government area east of the Niger.
While taking delivery of truckloads of the materials in his country home in Eziome Mbieri, Rt. Hon. Onyekanma, acknowledged that while the lockdown directive was a pragmatic measure to contain the wild spread of Covid-19 pandemic in the state, it has engendered the adverse knock-on effects of wide spread Covid-19 pandemic among the poor.
He noted that thus “as the representative of my people, I am under obligation to identify with them in the season and out of season and to share in everything they are going through. I am particularly concerned about the weak, the elderly and the indigents who are the most vulnerable group. They struggle in the best of times. They are much worse off right now. They should not have to starve to death during this period. That’s why I am sharing these food items with them”.
Following the order by the government that people should stay at home for at least two weeks for now especially to slow the spread of Coronavirus in Imo state, businesses have been shut down and all economic activities have grounded to a halt.
The prices of foodstuffs have gone high. As a result, petty traders, menial labourers and low income earners who work in the informal sector and depend on daily hustles to earn a living and feed their families have been starving of hunger.
In a release by the SA (Media) to the Hon. Member for Mbaitolu LGA, Justice Chukwunatu Nwafor said the community leaders from the various wards in Mbaitolu LGA who were on hand to witness the arrival of the relief materials lauded the former Deputy Speaker for his magnanimity of heart. They observed that he was indeed inseparable from his people and that his benevolent interventions would bring succor to the needy who are at risk of being taken out by hunger long before the virus came close to their neighborhood.
The distribution of the food items to various autonomous communities in the LGA will however kick-off on Monday, the 6th April, 2020.
