The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Meals Safety, on Tuesday night time, declared that it was not distributing nor delaying the distribution of rice palliative in states.
It was reported on Tuesday (not The PUNCH) that the Deputy spokesperson for the Home of Representatives, Philip Agbese, blamed bureaucratic bottlenecks from the agriculture ministry for the delay being skilled by goal beneficiaries of President Bola Tinubu’s rice palliative.
The lawmaker additionally reportedly said that the rice palliative launched by the President to members of the Home for distribution to their constituents was not lacking.
“Certainly, the President launched palliatives to lawmakers via the Ministry of Agriculture. Lawmakers have accepted that they’re anticipating the rice. Some have obtained it; some are but to obtain the rice due to the continuing bureaucratic course of within the ministry.
“I feel the Ministry of Agriculture has their very own contractors and due to the assorted distances from one state or constituency to the opposite, not everyone has obtained, however some lawmakers have obtained,” Agbese reportedly said.
Reacting to this in an announcement issued in Abuja on Tuesday night time by the Director Info, FMAFS, Joel Oruche, the ministry mentioned, “The eye of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Meals Safety has been drawn to tales making the rounds that the ministry is delaying the distribution of rice palliative and want to state as follows;
“The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Meals Safety will not be distributing any palliative. The difficulty below reference considerations constituency tasks budgeted for below the 2023 supplementary appropriation and domiciled within the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Meals Safety.
“It is not uncommon data that funds for Nationwide Meeting constituency tasks are domiciled within the related ministry for functions of implementation. The implementation course of for the 2023 supplementary appropriation is ongoing.”
The ministry defined that constituency tasks, on this occasion, embody a variety of wants of the constituents.
It mentioned among the wants embody staple grains and a few agricultural infrastructure as decided by respective members of the Nationwide Meeting.
Okechukwu, a journalist with Newspot NG, has 15 years expertise protecting Power (Energy and Petroleum), Finance, Agriculture, Setting, Humanitarian Companies, Works and Housing, Commerce and Funding, Capital Markets, Aviation and Transport, ICT, amongst others