The Kano Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission, PCACC, reported t confiscated warehouses containing hundreds of millions of naira worth of hoarded commodities in the state on Sunday, 11th February 2024.
Several warehouses in and around Dawanau International Grains Market, Singer Market, and Kwari Textiles Market were sealed by the commission on Sunday.
The owners of such warehouses were nowhere to be found during the operation, but those opened were stacked full of commodities, including spaghetti, rice, pasta, sugar, and other food items.
According to the Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Muhuyi Rimingado, they sealed off the warehouses stocked with essential commodities such as grains, millets, sugar, and spaghetti among others after leading his team and journalists on an unscheduled inspection of warehouses of Africa’s leading grain market, Dawanau grain market in Kano.
Rimingado stated that they carried out the unscheduled inspection of the area after receiving an intelligence report and securing a search warrant from the court.
He emphasized that the operation became imperative to check the incessant increase of prices of essential commodities which was compounding the hardship faced by Nigerians.
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 incessant rise in the price of essential commodities. It was such that within a week, rice had jumped from N52,000 to N61,000.”Alhamdulillah, from what we have done so far, we are certain that there is an impact. From here, we are going to the market to ascertain the situation.”Firstly, we were able to stop the incessant 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”
Muhuyi Rimingado, Kano Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission
During the inspection at one of the commodities markets popularly known as Singer market, the leader of the market, Muhammadu Adakawa said they were happy with the move by the anti-graft agency as the soaring prices by the companies also had adverse effects on their businesses
He stated that they were only victims of circumstances as they were wrongly blamed for hoarding of the goods and skyrocketed prices.
The market leader, Adakawa however, expressed their willingness to cooperate with the agency to address the situation.
Story:Ihuoma Ukeje