Allow MMDAs to coordinate COVID-19 food distribution – Nii Lante Vanderpuye

The Member of Parliament for Odododiodoo, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye has called on the government to allow the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to coordinate the COVID-19 food distribution.

Following the Coronavirus outbreak in Ghana, the Government banned public gatherings and imposed a partial lockdown of the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Areas in a bid to curb the spread of the virus.

The government, however, decided to support the vulnerable by distributing food to them.

But MPs from areas such as Klottey Korle, Odododiodoo, Ayawaso North, Ablekuma South, Ashaiman, Obom Domeabra, and Asawase, who are National Democratic Congress (NDC) members, say there is an elaborate scheme to distribute food on a partisan basis.

The Odododiodoo legislator, contributing on Saturday, April 18, 2020, edition of Citi Fm & Citi Tv’s weekend current affairs program, The Big Issue, said the only way to avoid the partisanship is by allowing the MMDA’s to do the distribution.

“I heard the Gender Minister saying she cooks the food and people come to her house for it. Is it the business of the Gender Minister to cook? Is that what she is supposed to do? So she is cooking, her deputy is cooking and the Local Government Minister is also cooking… Ministers are not supposed to cook but are to supervise the work of others who are to do these things and make sure they do it the way it’s intended.”

“They come and park the car and ask their party guys to come and give the food to them. Even those who run to the car, we don’t give them because they are not people we know that is it what is making this whole thing very insensitive and inoperational. The good thing is that we can avoid all these things and run this by the assembly members and the unit committee members. This can be done well,” the MP said.

Probe partisan distribution of COVID-19 food – Zanetor

The Member of Parliament for Klottey Korley, Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings had earlier called on President Nana Akufo-Addo to institute a credible investigation into the alleged partisan distribution of food in some areas observing the lockdown including the Klottey-Korle constituency.

“I call on the President, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to institute credible investigations into the seeming politicization of food distribution in this time of crisis. My constituents and I stand ready to cooperate and to present unimpeachable evidence before such an investigative panel,” she said