The Abia State government has suspended the ongoing dispensing of free cooking gas to the people of the State by Second Coming Gas station, Umuahia, so as to avert any possible crowd control challenges.
In a statement written by the Commissioner for Information, Chief John Okiyi Kalu, said the government decided to put on hold the dispensing, so as to avert any possible challenge that may emanate, bearing in mind the present pandemic ravaging the world.
” We wish to express our sincerest appreciation to the management of Second Coming Gas Company for their good gesture and will inform them and members of the public of a new dispensing plan that will help to avert any breakdown of law and order as well as implement the operating guidelines aimed at preventing and controlling the spread of COVID-19 in our state”.
National Ambassador gathered that over ten thousand Abia residents stormed the second coming gas plant, to benefit from the Palliative that was donated by the CEO of the gas station, Mr Basil Ogbuanu, as a way of alleviating the hardship caused by the Lockdown in the state.
Due to poor logistics,the whole exercise was defeated as over 90% of those that came for the palliative,left unattended to.
It was also gathered that the guidelines for preventing the spread of covid 19 in the state which the state has been working hard to maintain were all breached.
Social distancing was totally ignored, no buckets/sanitizers were seen around and very few persons came on their face masks.
Some of the people who spoke to us, lamented bitterly over the arrangements put on ground.
According to them, the management of the gas station did not start early in dispensing the cooking gas and as at the time they started the crowd were already overwhelming, leaving everyone struggling to gain access into the gas station.
Even though they thanked the state government for their efforts in reaching out to people, suggested that a better method should be used in dispensing the gas.
For some people,the day turned out to be a good one, as they took advantage of the situation to do their business. Food and other items were hawked around to sustain those who left their homes as early as 2am without breakfast.
We also gathered that people who came to inflict more pains on people were also on ground,as reports stated that cylinders were stolen from queues they were placed.
At a point, people were driven out of the gas station to afford any form of casualty, by 6:00pm when the gate was opened after over four hours it was shot down just to contain the crowd, those who were lucky to have their cylinders at the front queue right inside the gas station were the ones that smiled home while others who could not access the front had to go home with empty cylinders.
