Africa Press-Nigeria:
The Nigeria Customs Service (NIS) has denied Oyo State Government the opportunity to return the 1,800 bags of rice the state claimed were not fit for human consumption.
DAILY POST gathered that both Oyo State Government and the Nigeria Customs Service, Oyo/Osun command have been trading blames since last Friday, over the genuineness of the 1,800 bags of rice supplied to the state government by the Customs Service as parts of the federal government’s palliative to the state.
Our correspondent recalls that the command had penultimate Tuesday supplied the bags of rice to the state as part of efforts to cushion the effects of Coronavirus on the people of the state.
Other states; Osun and Ekiti also received 1,800 bags each, while Ondo received 600 bags of rice from the command.
However, three days after taking delivery of the rice, Oyo State government through the Special Adviser to the state Governor, Debo Akande said that the rice was not healthy for human consumption.
But, the command on Sunday said the bags of rice that exited its Command headquarters were in good condition.
Public Relations Officer of Oyo/Osun Command, Abdullahi Lagos in a statement made available to DAILY POST insisted that the command was embarrassed to hear three days later that the rice allocated to Oyo state were infected with weevils and unfit for human consumption.
The Oyo State government, however, on Wednesday took a step to return the rice but the Customs officers shut the doors of the command on the officials and refused to accept the alleged bad bags of rice from the state.
Trucks loaded with the ‘expired’ rice were sent to the Zonal Headquarters of the Nigerian Customs in Ibadan but the Customs officers refused to open its doors on the officials led by Commissioner for Agriculture, Ojemuyiwa Ojekunle.
