Agric Ministry Calls Bags Of Rice Provided For Citizens Through NASS Members ‘Constituency Project’, Says Implementation Process ‘Underway’
Controversy over the bags of rice provided for the citizens by the Federal Government through the senators and members of the House of Representatives, has not ended.
The federal lawmakers and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture had come under the spotlight following the disclosure made by Rep Anamero Sunday Dekiri of Etsako West/ Etsako East/ Etsako Central federal constituency, Edo state, in a viral video a few days ago.
Recall that the Federal Government had taken steps to ease things for the citizens following the removal of petrol subsidy and its concomitant economic hardships.
Apart from the concessionary travel scheme introduced by the Federal Government ahead of the yuletide, arrangements were also made to make 1,000 bags of rice (50kg) and 2,000 bags of rice (50kg) available to each of the reps members and the senators respectively for onward distribution to their respective constituents.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, on Tuesday night, declared that the ministry should not be blamed for the delay in distributing the food item in question to the citizens.
Recall that the Deputy spokesman for the House of Representatives, Philip Agbese, had blamed bureaucratic bottlenecks on the part of the ministry for the delay experienced with respect to the distribution of the bags of rice to the citizens.
‘Indeed, the President released palliatives to lawmakers through the Ministry of Agriculture. Lawmakers have accepted this and they are expecting the rice. Some have received it; some are yet to receive the rice because of the ongoing bureaucratic process in the ministry’ he said.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned that the ministry has reacted to this in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday night by its Director of Information,, Joel Oruche.
‘The attention of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has been drawn to stories making the rounds that the ministry is delaying the distribution of rice palliative and wish to state as follows;
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is not distributing any palliative. The issue under reference concerns constituency projects budgeted for under the 2023 supplementary appropriation and domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
It is common knowledge that funds for National Assembly constituency projects are domiciled in the relevant ministry for purposes of implementation. The implementation process for the 2023 supplementary appropriation is ongoing’ the statement said.
The ministry explained that constituency projects, in this instance, include a range of the needs of the constituents which are staple grains and some agricultural infrastructure as determined by the respective members of the National Assembly-Team@orientactualmags.com
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