The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiyya Umar Farouk, has disagreed with the position of the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), over the allegation that the bags of rice distributed to parts of the country, especially the South West as palliatives, were infected by weevils and not fit for human consumption.
NAFDAC reportedly debunked the minister’s statement on Tuesday where she claimed that the agency had certified the rice good for human consumption.
But the Minister while fielding questions during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the containment of the Coronavirus, on Wednesday in Abuja, insisted that the grains were good for consumption, adding that she got certificate to that effect from the Nigerian Customs Service.
“On NAFDAC, we still stand by what we said because this was what was conveyed to us by the Nigerian Customs and we have a certificate to that regard that this rice given to us are fit for human consumption. We can give you that certificate’’, she said.
She, therefore, urged the Customs and NAFDAC to sort out the communication gap and report back to this task force, adding that the agencies of government respect each other’s mandate while carrying out their respective responsibilities.
The Minister said further that her ministry has carried out the directive of President Buhari to expand the social register for the beneficiaries of the palliatives by one million, stressing that as of today (Wednesday) the ministry has reached three million targeting 3. 6 million by the middle of May.
She said Ebonyi state, which was not in the register before, is now captured while Ogun State will join the beneficiaries register by next week.
On the question of demands by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to have the names of the beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer to be made public, Farouk said that would be against the norm to publish the names of such beneficiaries from this government intervention because that will demean their dignity.
She said, however, that there are records in local governments according to states down to the community levels, where one can get the number of the poor and vulnerable households.
On the number of grains distributed so far, Farouk said “we were given 70, 000 metric tons of grains and as at today we have been able to deploy 9, 320 metric tons, which was about 334 trucks.
Source: Businessdayng
