THIS DAY
*To clampdown on hoarders of food items
*May import commodities as last resort*Governors meet NSA, DSS over insecurity, food scarcity
*Abbas to Nigerians: your cries haven’t fallen on deaf ears
*JNI advises federal government to address current hardship
Deji Elumoye, Chuks Okocha, Juliet Akoje in Abuja and John Shiklam in Kaduna
The federal government, yesterday, moved to address the high cost of food items in the country with a directive for the immediate release of 102,000 metric tonnes of rice, maize, millet, and garri from government reserves and stores of rice millers to the Nigerian market.The move was the highpoint of the three-day meeting of the Special Presidential Committee on Emergency Food Intervention, headed by Chief of Staff to the President, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, at State House, Abuja.The government said it would henceforth clampdown on hoarders of food items in the country, stressing that it may import commodities as a last resort in efforts to address the current shortages.
Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) also met, yesterday, with the National Security Adviser (NSA), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, and the representative of Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Bichi, on how to address the recent national concerns.Similarly, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, acknowledged the current anxieties bordering on the state of the economy, security, and other issues, and assuring of doubled efforts to address them.
At the same time, the Islamic body, Ja’amatu Nasril Islam (JNI), headed by Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, called on the federal and state governments to urgently address the economic and security challenges facing Nigerians to prevent a deterioration.Briefing newsmen after the meeting at State House, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said while the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security would make available 42,000 metric tonnes of maize, millet, garri, and other commodities, the rice millers, through their association, would release 62,000 metric tonnes of rice from their reserves.Idris stated, “Today’s meeting was, again, on the issue of difficulty of putting food on the table of most Nigerians, and has come up with a number of measures to ensure that food becomes more readily available to Nigerians.
“The first one is that the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has been directed to immediately release about 42,000 metric tons of maize, millet, garri and other commodities in their strategic reserve so that these items will be made available to Nigerians.“The second one is that we have held meetings with the Rice Millers Association of Nigeria, those who are responsible for producing this rice, and we have asked them to open up their stores.“They’ve told us that they can guarantee about 60,000 metric tons of rice. This will be made available and we know that is enough to take Nigerians for the next one month to six weeks, perhaps, up to two months. They’ve agreed that they will make that available to Nigerians to bring it out to the market so that food can be made available…
