₦airaland Forum

The Lagos State Government has blamed saboteurs for the absence of bags of rice produced from the state rice mill in the market, saying some people would buy the rice and re-bag them as foreign rice to be sold outside the state.

The state commissioner for information and strategy, Gbenga Omotosho, also stated that inadequate paddies in the country is limiting the capacity of the mill to produce as much rice for local consumption.

Daily Trust reports that former President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2023 unveiled the two million metric tonnes per hour Lagos Rice Mill located in Imota.

The Rice Mill dubbed as the third largest in the world has the capacity to produce 2.5m bags of 50kg rice annually and generate 250,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had said the rice mill is a 2x16MTPH standing on an area of 8.5Ha land with an annual paddy requirement of over 240,000MT to produce 2.5 million bags of 50kg rice per annum.

However since the commissioning of the mill, Lagosians hardly see the bags of rice produced from the mill in the market though the state through other private mills had to subsidize rice for some segments of the population.

But Omotosho in an interview on Mainland FM explained that the scarcity of paddies is a major challenge for the state’s mill in meeting its production capacity.

He also decried the activities of those he called ‘saboteurs’ who buy the locally produced rice and re-bag them as foreign rice to be sold outside the state.

According to him, due to climate change and other factors causing scarcity of paddies, the rice mills across the country are struggling to operate.

"In every part of Nigeria, there are small, small mills and because of the change in weather condition and so many other things, we do not have enough paddies,” he said.

According to him, Lagos State Government is trying as much as possible “to ensure that Lagosians are not short of rice.”

“But there are saboteurs. The rice coming in from the Rice Mill in Imota, you would see some people going to re-bag them and put foreign name on such bags and then take them out of Lagos,” he said.

He added, “That’s is why it is very difficult to see the rice as much as we would have loved to see them.”

Emu4life:
Solve issues not postulating problems

Obapluto:
Lol.. Lie mohammed spirit still lives..

Emu4life:
Solve issues not postulating problems

DesChyko:
Wahala. Ordinary rice plant, an entire government cannot manage. Are you telling me a private individual will fold their hands and watch their dream go to waste? Here's a government, with an army of resources at their disposal giving excuses.

Just say it isn't working. That's much more believable.

treesun:
Another lie, I visit Daleko regularly,
No LAG Rice!

Indelibleage:
Why do they keep selling to those people he mentioned? Did they not also do feasibility studies on how to get their raw materials before venturing into such project? Since 2023 that they opened the place, do they just know that the problem exist or persist?

If I have my way, they're the ones buying and rebagging the commodity!

Morbeta11:
Who are the saboteurs.........

aresa:
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has said the state will meet the demand of potable water supply to the residents by 2020. The governor gave the assurance on Tuesday after inspecting the ongoing construction in the Adiyan waterworks. He said the project was designed to put an end to scarcity of potable water supply to the residents.

The governor, who also inaugurated an 18 classroom block at Sonmori Senior Comprehensive High School, College Road, Ifako Ijaiye and First African Primary School, Iju–Ishaga, said the All Progressives Congress would continue to provide dividends of democracy to the people.

Fashola said, “The construction work in the Adiyan waterworks phase II is in top gear. The contractor has shown that his men could work at night and hopefully, this will speed up the construction of the waterworks. “This is the third major waterworks in the state. The first was the Iju waterworks which was built in 1910. There was no major intervention in the state until 1991 when Adiyan waterworks phase I was constructed. That was a long time and the population continued to grow in the state. “This is direct government funding. The long term plan is that we will need more of this to be able to hit the water demands of the residents of the state. The plan is that by 2020, we should be able to meet the plan of the citizens of the state.”

The governor explained that provision of water alone was never the answer to water scarcity, but the conservation of water. He said, “Like all utilities, one can never oversupply. So, to have adequate supply, it requires minimisation of waste and water conservation. “Work on the Ifako-Ijaiye mini stadium is ongoing and it will be completed on time. It is a commitment I made to them and I assured them that I will deliver it. And hopefully, we will finish it before 2015.”