The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday accused the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government of allegedly donating contaminated and poisonous rice to Nigerians as COVID-19 palliatives. PDP in a statement issued by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Prince Diran Odeyemi, accused the federal government of distributing ‘rotten rice’ seized by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) many years ago instead of using the money donated to Nigerians to buy food items as palliatives for them. The PDP spokesperson also accused the APC-led government of foul play; in the circumstances deployed by the government to rate and determine who is poor in Nigeria.
Odeyemi further stated that “it is also lack of initiative and poor judgement if the best method and option deployed by the government is to give financial succour only to Nigerians with less than N5,000 in their bank account or citizen who are not able to top their mobile phone with more than N100 whereas they know where the poor Nigerians lives when they want their votes.”
The PDP made reference to a widely circulated video clips where NCS had declared millions of seized bags of rice as unfit for human consumption going by the chemicals purportedly used by the smugglers in preserving them before bringing them to Nigeria, and as such, there was no basis for the federal government through the same agency to consider releasing such to Nigerians as palliatives. “It is irreconcilable if in the name of saving the lives of Nigerians against the coronavirus pandemic, the same government is giving Nigerians poisonous rice as palliative; we wonder how a government that claims to value the lives of its people will openly toy with the idea of feeding them with expired food,” he stated.
Odeyemi, however, commended the vigilance of Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and his team, and praised his resolution to reject the 1,800 bags of ‘the poisonous rice’ donated to the state government through the NCS, advising other state governments to emulate Makinde by returning their consignment rather than play politics with the lives of the citizens. The PDP deputy national publicity secretary stressed that the Osun State case is still fresh in the memory where adulterated and expired bags of rice were distributed to the people in the name of palliative which has landed many people in the state in the hospital.
According to him, “This is to say the least, a wicked and an ungodly act considering what would have be the consequence should the Oyo State Government have gone ahead with the distribution of the 1,800 bags of rice without checking it. This act is condemnable.”
In a related development, the Ondo State Government has rejected some expired bags of rice from the consignment sent to the state by the Federal Government. The federal government sent about 1,800 bags of rice and vegetable oil to the state as part of measures to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown in the country.
The state Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, has ordered the return of some bags of rice sent to the state by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management as they were found to have expired. Speaking on the development, the Secretary of the state palliative committee, Alex Kalejaiye, confirmed that some of the bags of rice had expired and were no longer fit for consumption.
According to him, the bad rice will be separated from the good ones and the good ones will be taken to the laboratory to ascertain if they were fit for human consumption. He said, “We discovered that some of the bags have expired and not good for consumption at all, so we are separating them from the ones that are still manageable for consumption. After this, we will still take the ones that appear good to the laboratory to test if they are fit for consumption.”
It was gathered that when it was discovered that some of the rice had expired, the governor reportedly ordered that they should be rejected. Akeredolu, who officially received the palliative items at the Government House ground, Alagbaka from the state coordinating unit of the Youths Empowerment and Social Support Operations, last week, was said to have expressed displeasure over the development.
