Hoarding: Kano Anti-graft Agency Seals 10 Warehouses, Confiscates Essential Goods

Ahmad Sorondinki in Kano

The Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC) yesterday confiscated essential goods worth several millions of naira stocked in 10 warehouses at the Dawanau International Commodity market in Kano metropolis.

The commission had set up an intelligence mechanism and launched a manhunt on food hoarders who imposed untold hardship on the citizens.

In a grand operation, the Chairman of the commission, Muhyi, alongside the personnel of the commission clamped down on warehouses and stores engaged in hoarding assorted foodstuff across the state.

All the owners of such warehouse were nowhere to be found during the operation but those opened were stacked full of commodity, including rice, spaghetti, pasta, sugar, cooking oil and other food items.

The chairman of the anti-graft agency said some of the owners of the warehouses have been issued notice to report to the anti-graft commission preparatory to face charges before the court of law for their illegal activities.

He said: “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 instant rise in the price of essential commodities. It was such that within a week, the price of rice had jumped from N52, 000 to N61,000 within a week.

“Alhamdulillah form what we have done so far, we are certain that there is impact. From here we are going to the market to ascertain the situation.

“Firstly, we were able to stop the instant 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 from where they have gotten to.

“As you can see now, we are going round 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 store we entered was that they would be claiming that it is the World Food Programme Store. We wonder if the world food programme will starve the country while taking the food somewhere else.

“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 have are hundreds of millions of naira worth of hoarded commodities.

“We are taking over the stores now and we are going to make some certain 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 so there’s nowhere and how they are hoarding it anymore.”