The Ondo State Government has rejected expired bags of rice from
the 1,800 bags sent to the state by the Federal Government.
The federal government sent about 1,800 bags of rice and
vegetable oil to the state as part of measures to cushion the
effect of the COVID-19 lockdown in the country.
The state Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, has ordered the return
of some bags of rice sent to the state by the Federal Ministry of
Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management as they were found to
have expired.
Speaking on the development, the Secretary of the state
palliative committee, Mr. Alex Kalejaiye, confirmed that some of
the bags of rice had expired and were no longer fit for
consumption.
According to him, the bad rice will be separated from the good
ones and the good ones will be taken to the laboratory to ascertain
if they were fit for human consumption.
He said, “We discovered that some of the bags have expired and
not good for consumption at all, so we are separating them from the
ones that are still manageable for consumption. After this, we will
still take the ones that appear good to the laboratory to test if
they are fit for consumption.”
It was gathered that when it was discovered that some of the
rice had expired, the governor reportedly ordered that they should
be rejected.
Akeredolu, who officially received the palliative items at the
Government House ground, Alagbaka from the state coordinating unit
of the Youths Empowerment and Social Support Operations, last week,
was said to have expressed displeasure over the development.
Kalejaiye said, “They brought many bags of rice , we just
carried out random check on them to discover the ones that are not
good. What we are trying to do is to separate those ones that
appeared bad from those ones that appeared good then we will carry
out laboratory test on them to ascertain whether they are safe for
consumption before giving them out to our people.
“Some are expired , it is even written on the bags but some are
not expired but it seemed they were not properly stored, and those
ones are not properly stored would not be good to be given to our
people without carrying out the laboratory test .
“We will separate the extremely bad ones from the rest and we
will carry out the laboratory test on those ones that appear good,
to ascertain how safe they are for consumption. But the extremely
bad ones, we don’t even need to do test on them , we will return
them.
“We will meet tomorrow (today) to decide when to return them ,
you know we can’t do it without the consent of Mr. Governor.”
The Ondo State Government has rejected expired bags of rice from
the 1,800 bags sent to the state by the Federal Government.
The federal government sent about 1,800 bags of rice and
vegetable oil to the state as part of measures to cushion the
effect of the COVID-19 lockdown in the country.
The state Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, has ordered the return
of some bags of rice sent to the state by the Federal Ministry of
Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management as they were found to
have expired.
Speaking on the development, the Secretary of the state
palliative committee, Mr. Alex Kalejaiye, confirmed that some of
the bags of rice had expired and were no longer fit for
consumption.
According to him, the bad rice will be separated from the good
ones and the good ones will be taken to the laboratory to ascertain
if they were fit for human consumption.
He said, “We discovered that some of the bags have expired and
not good for consumption at all, so we are separating them from the
ones that are still manageable for consumption. After this, we will
still take the ones that appear good to the laboratory to test if
they are fit for consumption.”
It was gathered that when it was discovered that some of the
rice had expired, the governor reportedly ordered that they should
be rejected.
Akeredolu, who officially received the palliative items at the
Government House ground, Alagbaka from the state coordinating unit
of the Youths Empowerment and Social Support Operations, last week,
was said to have expressed displeasure over the development.
Kalejaiye said, “They brought many bags of rice , we just
carried out random check on them to discover the ones that are not
good. What we are trying to do is to separate those ones that
appeared bad from those ones that appeared good then we will carry
out laboratory test on them to ascertain whether they are safe for
consumption before giving them out to our people.
“Some are expired , it is even written on the bags but some are
not expired but it seemed they were not properly stored, and those
ones are not properly stored would not be good to be given to our
people without carrying out the laboratory test .
“We will separate the extremely bad ones from the rest and we
will carry out the laboratory test on those ones that appear good,
to ascertain how safe they are for consumption. But the extremely
bad ones, we don’t even need to do test on them , we will return
them.
“We will meet tomorrow (today) to decide when to return them ,
you know we can’t do it without the consent of Mr. Governor.”