The Department of State Security Services has arrested Special Adviser on Infrastructure to Governor Dikko Radda of Katsina State, Alhaji Nasir Lawal, alongside other state government officials and traders, for diverting federal government rice palliatives meant for vulnerable persons in the state.
Earlier, the DSS had impounded 2,000 bags of rice stocked in stores at the Central Market in Katsina, which were traced to the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Alhaji Ahmed Musa Dangiwa. Other officials are being interrogated over the source of the remaining 800 bags.
The rice was impounded after a tip-off by good Samaritans who noticed strange movements of trucks offloading bags of grains at night. The distribution list shows that the Minister of Housing and Urban Development was given 1,200 bags to distribute to less privileged persons, but the bags were kept at a warehouse “for safekeeping.”
The Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’ah wa Iqamatus Sunnah received 6,000 bags on behalf of its members, which have also not been distributed to the intended beneficiaries.
Civil society organisations, vulnerable persons, and residents have expressed worry over scandals and delays in the distribution of food assistance. The State Chairman of the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations, Abdur Rahman Abdullahi, described the scandal as “worrisome” and commended the DSS for investigating the officials involved.
“It is very unfortunate and worrisome that officials entrusted with distributing the federal government food assistance to less privileged persons would receive the 20 trucks meant for Katsina State yet refuse to distribute it,” Abdullahi said.
The Katsina State government has been urged to set up a committee to investigate the alleged diversion of some of the trucks of rice meant for distribution to less privileged persons in the state.
