The Oyo state government has rejected and returned 1,800 bags of ‘pest-infested rice’ back to the the federal government.
The decision of the government to return the rice was disclosed by Dr Debo Akande, the executive adviser to Governor Seyi Makinde on agribusiness, at the state secretariat, Ibadan, the state capital.
According to him, the government made the decision after a series of inspections done by the food security committee of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic task force the taskforce found out that the rice is unhealthy for human consumption.
He said: “The state government discovered that the grains of rice were infested by weevil and other pests, and took the decision in the interest of residents of the state.
“We initially assumed that it was just some part of it that was infested but some commissioners from five or six ministries came with me to inspect and we realised that it is not just some but quite a lot of them were infested. We do quality control of all that we receive it is just that that was received from the federal government that we found infested.”
He, however, noted that the return of the 1,800 bags will not affect the state’s distribution of palliatives because the state has purchased enough rice for distribution to the citizens.
He added that the state was though hopeful to receive a replacement of the bags of spoilt rice.
OYOINSIGHT.COM understands that On Monday, Oyo/Osun Command of the Nigeria Customs Service handed over the 1,800 bags of rice each to the governments of Oyo, Osun and Ekiti states, while it handed over 600 bags to the Ondo state government.
