The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, on Wednesday, insisted that the rice distributed to various states by the Federal Government were certified by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
Recall that NAFDAC’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, had on Tuesday said that the agency did not certify the 1,800 bags of rice given to Oyo State by the Federal Government.
Following the claim by Oyo state that rice given to it by the federal government as palliative was not fit for consumption, the government announced on Monday that NAFDAC had certified the rice.
However, Adeyeye on Tuesday said that NAFDAC was never invited to take samples and conduct a consumption fitness test on the rice sent to Oyo.
Reacting to NAFDAC’s denial Umar-Farouq, who spoke at the daily briefing on COVID-19 updates by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja, on Wednesday, insisted that she stood by her earlier statements.
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She said NAFDAC and the Nigeria Customs Service should sort out the communication gap because the customs had informed the government that the rice was certified fit for consumption by NAFDAC.
Umar-Farouq said, “On the statement of NAFDAC, we still stand by what we said because this was what was conveyed to us by Customs.
“And a certificate was issued stating that the rice given to us was good for human consumption before we flagged off the distribution in Lagos State.
“We can give you that certificate maybe by tomorrow or later today. So the NCS and NAFDAC, I am sure will sort out this communication gap and report back to this platform.”
