An undercover investigation carried out in the last 48 hours by www.calitown.com, has revealed that relief materials comprising bags of cement, cartons of spaghetti, bags of rice and beans, among others, have been carted away from the warehouse of the Cross River State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, located on Barracks Road, Calabar, to unknown destinations by persons suspected to be government officials and their allies.
While a top SEMA official insisted to us that the materials were being taken to “certain areas in the state who have experienced a disaster or two”, our team, trailed one truck loaded with materials that left the warehouse, as it headed to the Garden Street Building Materials market, in Calabar South, for offloading, implying that the materials the truck was conveying have been sold off.
At 12:42pm, this afternoon, Thursday, March 16, 2023, when www.calitown.com contacted Princewill Ayim, Director General, State Emergency Management Agency, he insisted to us that he was already out of town, traveling to the North of Cross River State, for the gubernatorial and state legislature elections.
He insisted in a short text message that, “loading around SEMA warehouses shouldn’t sound too strange. Distribution should be swift to avoid what happened last time. Your informant can do better if he get accurate info.” He however was unaware that our team was watching him drive out of the SEMA warehouse after loading a truck, one Oxblood Coloured Ford Jeep and other two vehicles. The vehicles and materials were obviously ‘escorting’ him to Ogoja.
We were accurately informed by SEMA ground staff, on conditions of anonymity that, “if we are distributing materials to assigned areas as claimed, there is normally a representative(s) of the place on ground to receive the items, but this is not the case here, as we speak.” We also gathered that in a proper relief materials distribution process, a manifest, detailing how the materials are to be distributed is normally readily available, none was available at this particular evacuation process. The SEMA DG only promised to pass this document to us when he returns from Ogoja.
At some point in the investigation, it was observed that after the vehicles take turns and enter the warehouse, the doors are shut and only opened when vehicles are fully loaded to depart to several unknown destinations. In a sudden twist, some personal cars waiting for their turn to enter the warehouse for the booty were spotted as they hastily departed the warehouse when word went round that the warehouse was being watched.
“I suspect that these things, especially foodstuff is being taken away to be used by these people to canvass for votes. You see how wicked they can be? These are relief materials sent in that they have refused to send to those in need, now they are taking them to the people as baits for votes. I don’t know if they have suddenly forgotten that it was this hoarding attitude that birthed the EndSars protest in Calabar that we have still not recovered from”, a man who identifies himself as Etim only, told us on Barracks Road.
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