The governments of Adamawa, Edo and Taraba states have denied the receipt of trucks of rice as promised by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The Adamawa state commissioner of Information and Strategy, Iliya James, when asked in a press conference in Yola, noted that only a fraction of fertilizer aimed to boost the current wet season farming was received.
“The Adamawa State government is yet to receive the purported 20 trucks of food items allocated by the federal government to the state.” the statement noted.
“However, the government of Adamawa State has been proactive in distributing relief food items to the people of Adamawa State overtime within the limit of its resources.
“The government also acknowledges the receipt in part of fertilizer allocated to Adamawa State and distribution of same is ongoing as they keep arriving together with the ones procured by the State government,” James said.
In a related development, the Edo State government denied receiving trucks of rice from the federal government.
This position was communicated by the Deputy Director of Media of the campaign organization of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in the September 21 governorship election in the state, Reverend Olu Martins.
“The Edo State government did not receive any rice from the Federal Government or Aliko Dangote Foundation. Mind you, Mr President did not mention in his speech on Sunday that rice was given to any of the states. It may be that it is still in the offing, because if he sent 20 trucks of rice to Edo State, which ministry did it go through? Which ministry or agency received it in Edo? He said this in reaction to reported claims by Adam Oshiomhole that the state government received rice from the federal government.”
Also, the Taraba state Commissioner for Information and Re-Orientation, Barrister Zainab Usman Jalingo, told reporters over the weekend, that the state is still expecting the promised food items.
She noted that the state Commissioner for Special Duties, Saviour Noku, who is supposed to handle the receipt of the food items, has not received any communication from the federal level regarding the dispatch of the 20 trucks of rice to the state.
According to her, “as far as Taraba state is concerned, we have not received any allocation of twenty trucks of rice.
“The only addendum I can add to this is that as at Thursday, when the governor addressed the youths that came out to protest out of hunger, the rice given to those youths were owned by the state government.
“The rice was bought by the state ALGON and had been at the store before the governor instructed that it should be shared among the protestors as succor for the anger and pain of hunger that brought them out.”
