Kano Government Seals Warehouses suspected of hoarding

The Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission, led by its Chairman Mr. Muhuyi Rimingado, has sealed off more than 10 warehouses in a popular get na market in the state.

The action, carried out during an unscheduled inspection at Dawanau grain market in the northwestern state, targeted warehouses storing essential commodities like grains, millets, sugar, and spaghetti.

Rimingado, overseeing the operation, cited an intelligence report and a court-issued search warrant as the basis for the inspection, emphasising the need to curb the rising prices of goods, especially food items.

“As you can see, the Kano state Public Complaint and Anti Corruption Commission (PCACC) has made true its promise that we are going to embark on a fight against hoarding of essential commodities in the state.

“We started last Thursday and we have made a significant impact towards stopping the incessant rise in the price of essential commodities. It was such that within a week, rice had jumped from N52,000 to N61,000 within a week.

“Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God) from what we have done so far, we are certain that there is an impact. From here we are going to the market to ascertain the situation.

“Firstly, we were able to stop the incessant increase in prices of the commodities and secondly we have the belief that if we sustain the tempo we will be able to bring down the prices,” he said.

“As you can see now we are going around the warehouses and we met a lot of issues which after we go back to the office we are going to digest. “One fundamental problem is each warehouse we enter will be claiming that it is the World Food Program Store. We wonder if the World Food program will starve the country while taking the food somewhere else,” he lamented. 

Inflation

Mr Rimingado further lamented how prices of food items have continued to soar as a result of hoarding.

 “You can see, I was told here today that the price of maize has jumped from N30,000 to N60,000. So you see, a hundred percent increase, this is unacceptable. You can see these stores, there are hundreds of millions of Naira worth of hoarded commodities.

He explained the next steps the agency is planning to take to arrest the situation.

“We are taking over the stores now and we are going to make some arrests because this will not be tolerated. This is not a market, this is a warehouse. We have activated our intelligence mechanism and they have come up with reports on where and how they are hoarding it.

“We have three options, we are taking over the warehouses which we have now. Secondly, we are putting our operative here and put another padlock on the stores. Thirdly, we will invite the owners, when they come we will dissect what investigations reveal, then it will end up in the court,” Mr. Rimingado added.

Earlier, a warehouse officer told the Chairman that the essential commodities were stocked in the warehouse for a contract allegedly entered with the United Nations under Food Supply Agreement, FSA, for onward transportation to their logistics hub in Maiduguri, Yobe, and Adamawa for distribution among Nigerians in the states.

During the inspection of one of the commodities markets popularly known as Singer market, Leader of the market, Alh. Muhammadu Adakawa said they were happy with the move by the agency as the soaring prices by the companies also has adverse effects on their businesses.

He said they were only victims of circumstances as they were wrongly blamed for hoarding of the goods and inflating prices.

The market leader, Adakawa however, expressed their willingness to cooperate with the agency to address the situation.

NeptunePrime/Hauwa Abu