Humanitarian minister, Sadiya Farouq and the National Agency for Food and Drugs Admininstration Control (NAFDAC) have both issued differing statements on how some states in the country received expired rice as Coronavirus palliatives.
Ms Farouq who commented on dispute the expired bags of rice ignited before now, had said that the food items were "handed over by the Nigerian Customs Service after being assessed by NAFDAC“.
Ms Farouq said;
“As you may recall, we mentioned here that we distributed the rice relief to the states. The rice was handed over to us by the Nigerian Customs Service and it was assessed by NAFDAC, who issued a clearance before the goods were released for onward distribution to the states.
“So, as far as we are concerned, the rice was certified fit for human consumption."
NAFDAC DG said;
“We got an invitation to sample rice from Idi-Iroko from Ogun and Ikeja Customs. Our staff went to Idi-Iroko and Ogun to sample the rice and they also went to Ikeja to sample rice, some of the samples are still in our lab in Oshodi. We tested the samples and they passed.
“The one for Oyo State, I cannot say anything because NAFDAC was not called by the Ibadan Command or the South-west command of customs to come and check samples in Ibadan.
”So, I cannot say anything about the Ibadan Command rice that went to Oyo and possibly to Osun State."
Mrs Farouq who challenged Adeyeye's comment while speaking at the daily Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday April 29, insisted that officials of the ministry she heads got a certificate “issued by NAFDAC”.
She further disclosed that the Customs and NAFDAC will be sorting out their communication gap later.
Farouq later said; Nigerian Customs Service and NAFDAC, will sort the communication gap and we will report back to this platform once that is done.
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