By Bida Elly David
A female relief beneficiary in Lainya County of Central Equatoria State has claimed that she detected mattress particles in maize flour delivered by ACROSS South Sudan, a humanitarian organization through the government as assistance to the vulnerable host community.
Recently, reports from some citizens of Lainya County on the social media indicated that a woman who received two sacks of maize flour as relief from ACROSS South Sudan detected mattress particles after opening it for confirmation.
The incident drew attention of many citizens who were concerned with the lives of the vulnerable internally displaced people in most affected areas across the Country.
Speaking to No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper yesterday Bida Lokoyome the press secretary in the office of Lainya County Commissioner refuted the accusation labelled against ACROSS by the beneficiary terming it null and unrealistic.
“The relief was brought by ACROSS and they have been distributing this thing for three days now. What we realized yesterday after inspection was that what was said was not true,” he said.
“According to one of the women, when she tried to check that flour she came to realize some small mattresses particles forms inside. When we tried to check some of the sacks, it was not true and the security organs nullified her statement,” he refuted the reports.
“What was being said was not true and everything is normal what happened to the flour during transportation was like the vehicle was washed by rain and some flour has signs of water spoiling it but the security nullified the statement that it was unrealistic. What the security nullified was propaganda because the woman brought the sacks of the flour and the mattress separately. People realized that there was no evidence,” he lamented.
The press secretary said that according to the findings carried out by the security team for the inspection, the claimed contaminated maize flour was free from any additional toxic or particles reported by the beneficiary who had no eye witness on her propaganda.
He reiterated that the husband to the accuser was ignorant of what happened after being consulted by the inspection team on the matter adding that the office of the commissioner had disregarded the accusation and allowed the organization to proceed with their exercise.
“The woman received two sacks and when one of the sacks was brought and examined, they never found the same mistake inside. When the woman made that thing, her husband was not aware but when we contacted her husband, he said the woman did not tell him. Even the incident was not witnessed by any eyewitness,” he stressed
“ACROSS is allowed to continue with their activities because the woman did not tell the truth and she has no witness. Although up to the court, unless you find the evidence, you will consider the accused guilty of the crimes,” he added.