FG to begin grain distribution in Niger

The Federal Government will soon begin grain distribution in Niger State.

Niger State Governor, Mohammed Bago, who announced this on Thursday at the Abuja headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security after a meeting with the agric minister, said Niger would be used as a pilot state before other states would join.

“We are here to discuss with the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security with respect of the visit of Mr. President to Niger State as regards the commissioning of the mechanisation process that they have been able to provide for agriculture.

“We also discussed about the palliatives from the Federal Government in terms of food distribution from all the grain reserves that we have across the country using Niger State as a pilot in the North-Central so that it can commence in earnest.

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“The distribution will commence by next week, what we are saying is that Niger State has provided itself as a pilot state in terms of giving the dividends of democracy with respect to agriculture and as such our sister states are coming on board,” Bago stated.

On February 8, 2024, President Bola Tinubu directed the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to release about 42,000MT of maize, millet and other commodities from the national strategic reserves in order to address the rising cost of food.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, had disclosed this in Abuja after a meeting of the Presidential Committee on Emergency Food Intervention.

Idris had also stated that the Rice Millers Association of Nigeria had committed to releasing about 60,000MT of rice to the markets.

Meanwhile, a BUA truck conveying cartons of spaghetti has been attacked by hoodlums at the Dogarawa axis of the Zaria-Kano expressway on Friday afternoon.

Dogarawa is a settlement located at the outskirts of Zaria, along the Kaduna-Zaria-Kano expressway.

An eyewitness disclosed that the incident occurred around 3.15pm when the driver of the truck parked by the roadside to observe his prayers.

He said that immediately after the driver parked, the hoodlums started carting the items away.

The eyewitness, who described the incident as unfortunate and regrettable, said such incident had never occurred in the area, where he has operated a shop for more than 10 years.

“Not a single carton of spaghetti on the truck was left by the hoodlums,” he said. 

A security source, however, told Daily Trust Saturday that when the police arrived at the scene of the incident, they succeeded in arresting five people.