NEMA DG Mustapha Maihaja
NEMA DG Mustapha Maihaja
Indicted NEMA DG Maihaja, Moves to Evacuate Wasted
Chinese Rice from Gombe warehouse
… direct staff to doctor procurement and delivery documents
….. panel uncovers another set of hidden rice in Lagos
Embattled Director General of the National Emergency Management
Agency (NEMA) Mustapha Maihaja, has commenced desperate moves to
evacuate and dispose about 6,779metric tons of rice donated by the
Chinese government for distribution to Internally Displaced Persons
in the North East.
This followed discovery by the House of Representatives
committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness which indicted
Maihaja for fraud, misappropriation and embezzlement of whopping
sum of N33 billion of funds released to the agency in just one
year.
Information available to the committee indicates that Maihaja
and the Director Relief Services arrived in Gombe early Wednesday
and have already contacted NEMA officers in Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno,
Gombe, Yobe and Taraba states to prepare and forge papers to claim
that they received the items while making effort to evacuate and
dispose the items from the warehouse in Gombe.
The committee has further discovered that hundreds of metric
tons of the Chinese donated rice have been kept under lock and key
in a private warehouse in Lagos under questionable
circumstances.
“We are intensifying efforts to unravel the mystery surrounding
how the rice was diverted from the ports to the said warehouse
instead of being transported directly to the affected states for
onward distribution to IDPs who are dying of hunger, starvation and
malnutrition,”a statement from the committee chaired by Hon Ali Isa
J. C said.
“The committee wants to use this opportunity to alert members of
the public to watch out and be careful so that they don’t buy or
consume the rotten rice which will pose great risk to their
health.”
Another source in the agency disclosed that Maihaja has directed
top management staff to alter procurement and relief items
distribution documents so as to cover his tracks.
We want the public to be vigilant especially residents of Gombe
where the wasted rice was allowed to rotten despite paying the sum
of N800 million as cost of demurrage accumulated at the port by
NEMA under Maihaja.
Early on Wednesday, images of the 271 trucks and approximately
162,696 bags of rice the wasted bags of rice was released by the
Committee which jolted the public attracting wide condemnations
from all section of the country.
This is happening at a time the country is facing acute shortage
of food for IDPs causing malnutrition in children
According to the United Nations, Nigeria is still facing a
crisis of global magnitude with 7.7 million people in need of
humanitarian assistance in the north east.
By PRNigeria