The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, on February 8, said Tinubu approved the release of 42,000MT of maize, millet and other commodities from the national strategic reserves to address the rising cost of food.
Idris, after a meeting of the Presidential Committee on Emergency Food Intervention, also said the Rice Millers Association of Nigeria had committed to releasing about 60,000MT of rice to the markets.
Oyintiloye, who spoke to journalists in Osogbo, Osun State on Sunday, said monitoring the distribution has become necessary in order to ensure that the food items were not diverted, but get to the targeted Nigerians.
The ex-lawmaker said precedents had shown that the Federal Government’s free grains had not been reaching targeted Nigerians due to the activities of saboteurs.
He said for the masses to benefit from the free grains, the President must put up a taskforce that would monitor the distribution and check activities of saboteurs, who may be planning to rip off Nigerians.
He said, “If the President wants poor Nigerians to feel the impact of the released grains, a special taskforce should be constituted to ensure effective distribution. It will be a great disservice to the country and to the efforts of the President if the good gesture of the free grains is allowed to be hijacked by private individuals.
“Apart from the staff of the National Emergency Management Agency and Department of State Services that would be engaged in the distribution, a special presidential taskforce should be deployed to states to ensure effective distribution.
“There is no doubt that there is hunger in the land, but the efforts of the government in minimising the problems should not be allowed to be truncated by the enemies of the country.
“And that is why I appeal to the President to set up this special taskforce so as to outsmart those that are waiting to divert the grains.
“With the presidential taskforce in place and with effective monitoring, it will be difficult for anyone, no matter how placed to have access or divert the grains.”
Noting that the President was doing everything possible to salvage the situation, Oyintiloye said whatever the challenges the country was passing through at the moment would soon be a thing of the past.
