Rice millers allege plot to kill local industries

Addressing a press conference, in Makurdi, Aondoakaa appealed to the federal government and other authorities to, as a matter of urgency, beam their searchlights on the activities of those few importers manipulating the market with an intention to collapse the local industry.
He said: “We (local rice millers) are crying for help. The federal government should come to our aid or, else, in the next three months we will be out of market and that would not be good for the country.
“This is evident in the activities of few rice importers who are refusing to play by the rules of this country because they have been allowed to manipulate the market. Their target is to make local rice mills collapse.”
The ex-minister, who is now the chairman of Mikap Nigeria Limited, the producers of Miva rice, located in Makurdi, Benue State, said that the suspected importers were bringing rice into the country, through the back door, dumping same in the market at prices far below that of the local millers. He said that the intention of the importers was to ensure that importation of rice continued in the country, despite government’s effort at encouraging local production.
He said that the companies involved in the deal were also guilty of refusing to pay customs duties on the product.
The former minister urged the outgoing government at the centre and the incoming administration to call the guilty firms to order in order not to sabotage the efforts of local rice producers and render many unemployed.