Victims of last week’s tanker fire incident in Apata area of Ibadan, Thursday, alerted that they were shortchanged in the disbursement of the N10 million donated to them by Governor Seyi Makinde to cushion the effect of their losses.
Addressing journalists during a protest to the Oyo state NUJ Press Centre in Ibadan, the victims asked Governor Makinde to investigate the disbursement of the money and retrieve victims’ money from imposters.
Armed with placards having various, inscriptions, the victims declared that they were sidelined or given insignificant share of the N10 million donation by Makinde.
The protesting victims stressed that 45 beneficiaries were listed as beneficiaries after the money was given in cash but the list increased to more than 70 later and that four persons, namely Ashifat Abdullahi, Aminat Bamidele, Abiodun Tejuoso and Olayiwola were chosen to represent the victims.
They stressed further that the beneficiaries’ list was later allegedly doctored to accommodate those that were not affected and that while the four representatives apportioned to themselves huge sums.
According to one of the protesting victims, Olasunkanmi Adunni, a bread and essential goods seller affected by the fire, said, “there were 45 names in the list but unfortunately, that list increased with those who were not affected included. In fact, we don’t know the new beneficiaries.
“The house I lived in and the store my goods was burnt and I was only lucky to escape with my four children. Initially, the sum of N500,000 was penciled as the amount I was to collect but I was only given N100,000.”
Adunni added, “Aminat Bamidele, who did not lose anything to the fire because she was not among the traders affected, got N300,000. Someone who claimed to be a shoemaker got N200, 000.
“I lost over N12million worth of property to the fire. Bamidele was said to have claimed that there is nothing we can do as she has several influential people as in the list of her boyfriends.”
