• Shettima confirms interception of 45 trucks moving maize out of Nigeria, 32 smuggling routes uncovered
• Govt to release additional 60,000 tonnes of grains to combat hunger
• Customs to distribute seized food items nationwide, ramps up anti-smuggling operation
• Why FG can’t stop peaceful protests –  Tambuwal

To combat escalating food prices in the country, plans are underway by the Federal Government to release fresh 60,000 tonnes of grains to complement the 42,000 tonnes earlier released from its silos. This is just as the Vice President, Kashim Shettima has alleged that some unscrupulous people are working to undermine the efforts of the President Bola Tinubu administration to revamp the Nigerian economy.

As an interim measure to alleviate the hardship faced by Nigerians and improve access to essential food items, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said it has concluded plans to commence the direct disposal of seized food items to Nigerians. The National Public Relations Officer of the service, Abdullahi Maiwada, disclosed this in a statement released on Tuesday.

According to the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, the food items will be certified fit for consumption by relevant agencies and made available to Nigerians nationwide through equitable distribution in the NCS areas of operations.

He said in line with President Bola Tinubu’s food security agenda, the NCS has launched a strategic anti-smuggling operation and public engagement in its commitment to prevent the unlawful exportation of vital food resources for individual economic gains.

Adeniyi said this urgent measure fuels the need for a proactive stance to safeguard food availability within the nation and alleviate the detrimental effects of scarcity on citizens.

This is coming on the heels of the recent announcement from the Federal Government to go after food hoarders and illegal smugglers in the country. Hoarding and smuggling have been identified as factors worsening the hardship in the land as they fuel an increase in the cost of commodities.

Vice President Kashim Shettima yesterday confirmed the interception of 45 trucks conveying maize to neighbouring countries. He disclosed this during a conference on Public Wealth Management in Abuja.

“Just three nights ago, 45 trucks of maize were caught being transported to neighbouring countries. Just in that Ilela axis in Sokoto State, there are 32 illegal smuggling routes,” the VP said.

He further explained that after the interception, the price of maize, which was the major grain being transported, came down by N10,000, falling from N60,000 to N50,000.

The VP alleged that some people are hell-bent on undermining the government but called on Nigerians to coalesce into a singular entity, reiterating that the Federal Government is putting different measures in place to ensure food security across the country.

“We have to make this country work. We have to move beyond politics. We are now in the face of governance. Sadly, some of our countrymen are still in the political mode. They are the practitioners of violence, advocating that Nigeria should go the Lebanon way. But, Nigeria is greater than any of us here. Nigeria will weather the storm.

“Forces are hell-bent on plunging this country into a state of anarchy. Those who could not get to power through the ballot box, instead of waiting till 2027, are so desperate,” he said.

However, Lagos lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has emphasised that the Federal Government has to intervene decisively on behalf of the majority of the people by enforcing price control mechanisms that protect citizens from exploitation as envisaged under the Price Control Act.

SPEAKING in an interview with Channels TV on Tuesday, Falana said the step was necessary to guarantee that the economy of the country was not concentrated in the hands of a few. The rights activist was speaking on the background of his recent lawsuit against the Federal Government over failure to control the rising prices of essential commodities.

“The Tinubu administration has said that there is food in abundance in Nigeria. I think the Minister of Information made that statement a couple of days ago, but we have a situation where the majority of the people cannot afford the prices that have gone to the roof.

“That is why the government has a duty under the Price Control Act to control the price of essential commodities so that Nigerians will not be subjected to hunger unnecessarily. It is so bad now that if you pick a food item if you go back to the market tomorrow, the price has gone up,” he said.

He argued that while affluent citizens can cope with spiralling inflation, most ordinary Nigerians have been priced out of accessing basic commodities, hence, the urgent need for government intervention based on extant laws.

The Senior Advocate also questioned why electricity tariffs, telecom rates and petrol pump prices could be moderated via subsidies while other essentials like food, medicines and diesel were allowed to rise astronomically, thereby eroding people’s purchasing power.

Falana had approached the court to determine whether by virtue of Section 4 of the Price Control Act., the first respondent is carrying out its duty to impose a price on any goods that are of the kind specified in the First Schedule to the Price Control Act. On the strength of the suit, the Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the Federal Government to fix the prices of goods and petroleum products within seven days.

Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa specifically ordered the government to fix the price of milk, flour, salt, sugar, bicycles, and their spare parts, matches, motorcycles and their spare parts, motor vehicles and their spare parts as well as petroleum products, which includes diesel, premium motor spirit and kerosene.

But while the Vice President alluded to setting up a price board to regulate prices of food items, President Tinubu countered him, saying there was no plan to establish a price control board.

As citizens continue to register their displeasure over the rising costs in Nigeria, a former governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, has adduced reasons why the Federal Government cannot stop peaceful protests.

Tambuwal, who is currently representing Sokoto South in the Senate, maintained that no law in the country forbade aggrieved citizens from embarking on peaceful protests.

Speaking with journalists on the sideline of a Stakeholders’ Dialogue on the state of human rights in Nigeria, organised by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Center (PLAC), the lawmaker said there was a need for security agencies to understand that the right of citizens to protest is constitutional.

According to him, “Our courts have spoken that you cannot stop people from a peaceful protest, and it is very clear in our laws. Where is the limitation in the law? Maybe we should engage the police and other people in uniform to understand this.

“I do not see anything in black and white, in any law or any convention in this country that is restricting peoples’ rights against peaceful protests.”

In his keynote presentation at the event, the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Mr. Anthony Ojukwu (SAN), bemoaned the rising cases of rights violations in the country.

Ojukwu said the Commission had received over 2.3 million complaints in 2022, adding that “the right to life is also directly violated by persistent insecurity in the form of terrorism, escalating killings and farmer-herder conflicts and separatist agitations, kidnappings and armed banditry across the country.”