There are fears that residents of Bonny Local Government Area where Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike had imposed a lockdown may not be able to access the palliatives he sent to them given the restrictions to vehicular and pedestrian movements within the island LGA.

Expectations, however, were high that Wike will lift the lockdown later today or tomorrow for residents to be able to go receive their share of the palliatives.  

These fears became pronounced this morning as the Technical Committee on COVID-19 Compliance set up by the Bonny Chiefs Council (BCC) began distributing the palliatives to the 35 chieftaincy houses of Bonny Kingdom and various other groups.

In a telephone chat with Kristina Reports today, Chairman of the committee, Reginald Hart, who thanked the Governor and the multinationals, Nigeria LNG and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) for the palliatives, announced that the distribution exercise has kicked off.

He explained that the consignment for each chieftaincy house was being delivered at their respective Opuwari (community hall) while those of the various groups, especially, the non-indigenous bodies will follow later.

Palliatives stacked up at the Ibanise Hall, Akiama, Bonny. Photo credits: Williams Ogbah Agwu

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He further disclosed that arrangements have also been made to deliver the palliatives to the various villages so that those residing in the rural communities can also benefit, stressing that the mandate of the committee includes ensuring that every resident was captured in the exercise.

Kristina Reports checks, however, indicate that it would be difficult for residents to access the palliatives as most of the community halls are centrally located and with the restriction on vehicle and pedestrian movement there was no way they would be able to go get their share of the palliatives.

This therefore has accentuated the calls by residents for the State Governor to lift the lockdown so that the suffering residents of the area can access the palliatives, restock their homes that have been bereft of food for two weeks now, and also access funds from the banks.

A resident, who simply identified herself as Abbey, pleaded with the State Chief Executive to reconsider his stand on the lockdown as people were suffering the adverse effects of the lockdown with no food or funds to manage their lives.

In a Save Our Souls (SOS) message to the Governor through Kristina Reports, Abbey said “Please extend our pained hearts to the Governor of Rivers State, His Excellency to help lift the lockdown in Bonny, please. This pain is too much. It’s already 17 days at a stretch today, please”.

She passionately appealed to the Governor to either end the lockdown or ease the lockdown for 48 hours for the residents.   

Today, Monday, July 6, 2020, marks Day 16 that Wike imposed an impromptu lockdown on Bonny LGA as a way of checkmating the spread of the novel coronavirus in the area.

Statistics from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Public Health Emergency and Operations Centre (PHEOC) in Rivers State had indicated that Bonny LGA had a total of 58 positive COVID-19 cases and fourth on the disease burden profile of the State as at the time of imposing the lockdown.