Nigeria Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday took delivery of 135,580 bags of 50kg rice donated by the People’s Republic of China for direct distribution to the victims of Boko Haram insurgency in the North East.
The Director General of the Agency, Engr. Mustapha Maihajja who was at Apapa Port to supervise the clearance of the 6,779 metric tons of the rice before leaving for official assignment on Tuesday told NHO that the goods would be transported directly to various designated warehouses in the affected areas in the six states of the North East.
According to him, the rice which arrived in 271 containers have started been transported to the locations on Monday.
Addressing the journalists on the quality of the rice, Yakubu Suleiman, Zonal Coordinator, South-West who stood for DG said all the security agencies are present at the Port and have all done their works, if not the containers will not be moved in the first place.
“I am assuring you that the rice you see being moved to the North East is of the acceptable quality that we are consuming in Nigeria.
Suleiman said every security measures have been put in place to ensure that the rice is not diverted.
“The rice is branded. It is not a common brand. Nobody have seen it, you cannot produce it. So we have taken all the security measure in place including tracking. We are veterans in this area and we have not had any issue in terms of diversion of material in the last one year.
“This is not the first time we are moving items. We moved items from Ibadan to North East last year and we had no single case of diversion. So NEMA is on top of its game. Whatever you are reading in the online media are just stories, they are not the real situation on ground. No issue of diversion had been reported in NEMA in the last one year, that I am sure of and that I believe,” Suleiman said.
He however revealed that the the Chinese Government would officially present the gift to the Federal Government in one of the locations before direct distributions to the victims would commence.