. Denies authorizing anybody not to sell produce from southern Nigeria
Niger State government on Thursday exonerated self from allegations of commissioning some individuals to bar traders coming from other parts of the country from buying foodstuff which they transport to southern Nigeria.
The declaration by the state government is coming against the backdrop of claims by some groups, who said that they were acting on the “orders from above” to confiscate trailer loads of grains, yam and other foodstuff meant for export to other parts of the country.
The faceless individuals, investigations revealed, constituted themselves into taskforce, under the guise of being mandated by the state government, to visit major markets within Minna metropolis to check traders buying in bulk for export to other parts of Nigeria.
One of the groups, which also claimed to be working on the orders of the Chanchaga Local Government Chairman (Minna Metropolitan authorities), had been harassing traders at the popular old and new Gwadebe market and collecting monies from them.
It took the timely intervention of the Emir of Minna and the Eze Igbo of Minna, who were said to have intervened, to save the latest victims from losing hundreds of thousands of Naira invested in their businesses to the hoodlums.
The groups, source further hinted, tell their victims that they were on the orders of the state government to control sales of food stuff to non-Nigerlites buying in bulk because, ‘Government wants to store food as part of measure to cushion the effects of recession’.
The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Kabiru Abbas, and his Information, Tourism and Culture counterpart, Mr. Jonathan Vatsa, said that nobody was commissioned by the state government to control sale of food items to traders from the southern part of the country.
The commissioners however told journalists at the Government House that the Governor Sani Bello administration was considering stocking excess food which would be resold to citizens later when there would be less food stuff in the markets.
“We were only planning on how to buy excess foodstuff to be sold to citizens and we have also advised farmers not to sell all that they have but at no time was anybody or group mandated to stop or confiscate goods from traders coming all the way from the south to buy food items”.
The commissioners, who however promised to investigate the existence of the groups whom they claimed had been operating illegally said that the state government had secured N2.5 billion bank loan, part of which would be used to buy excess food for storage.
“Niger State government is also taking advantage of the federal government’s intervention in fertilizer to procure about 30, 000 metric tonnes which we intend to sell to genuine farmers at subsidized rate of N5, 000 per bag,” the commissioner said.
