Plastic Rice In Lagos Markets As Customs Awaits NAFDAC’s Investigation

The Nigeria Customs Service yesterday said it has sent the 102 bags of rice suspected to be plastic to the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to carry out laboratory test on them.

It said the laboratory test from NAFDAC would determine their next line of action, but  found yesterday that the controversial rice has reached many Lagos markets and homes.

The Customs Public Relations Officer (PRO), Zone A, which comprises Lagos and Ogun states, Jerry Attah, said in a telephone chat that samples of the recovered rice had been sent to NAFDAC, the approved government regulatory agency responsible for such matters.

Attah, an Assistant Superintendent of Customs, said the impounded rice, named Best Tomato Rice and packed in 25kg bags, has no expiry date, no date of production and no indication of the producers.

Some of the rice had been distributed as Christmas gift by corporate organizations before the rice was discovered to be the much talked about plastic rice.

And investigations around major rice markets in Lagos revealed that several thousands of bags of Best Tomato rice are currently being sold.

At Alaba Rago, a popular deport for smuggled rice, is the presence of several bags of Best Tomato rice in 25 kg bags. The same were seen at Igbo-Elerin, and Agbara noted for re-bagged rice.

Operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service attached to the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A, Ikeja on Tuesday impounded about 102 bags of plastic rice meant for distribution within the metropolis.

The bags of rice were recovered from a hidden store located in Ikeja area of Lagos.

Credit: dailytrust

 

Kogi Awaits Court’s Ruling A Day To Supplementary Election

It is less than 24 hours to the supplementary governorship election in Kogi State, and attention is presently in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, where the Federal High Court, will, on Friday, determine whether the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should go ahead with its plan to conduct a supplementary poll in Kogi State on Saturday.

The presiding judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, adjourned for judgment after all the parties adopted their final written addresses on contentious legal issues that arose after the sudden death of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Abubakar Audu, before the election was concluded.

Credit: ChannelsTV

CBN Concerned About Growth As Nation Awaits Cabinet

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will retain foreign currency controls because of concerns about slowing growth, a senior bank official said on Wednesday as the nation awaited a new cabinet.

President Muhammadu Buhari submitted the list of his nominees for cabinet posts to the Senate for approval on Wednesday, but the names were not immediately made public.

Foreign investors had criticized Buhari for failing to appoint ministers since he took office on May 29, leaving the central bank to deal alone with a hammering of the oil-dependent economy.

Buhari will address the nation on Thursday, the presidency said, without giving details.

According to Reuters, since his inauguration, a fall in vital oil revenues has eroded public finances, weakening the national currency and driving up the cost of food imports.

Growth was 2.35 per cent in the second quarter year on year, compared with 6.54 in the same quarter of 2014.

“We are concerned that we are having declining growth,” the central bank’s monetary policy director, Moses Tule, told reporters.

Read More: thisdaylive

Tight Security As Code Of Conduct Tribunal Awaits Saraki

Security was unusually tight at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, this morning, as the Senate President and former governor of Kwara state, Bukola Saraki, is expected to appear before the Danladi Umar-led Tribunal.

Saraki in a statement said he will appear before the Code of Conduct Tribunal today.

Read More: vanguardngr

Buhari Awaits Attorney General To Begin Corruption Prosecutions

The prosecution of ex-government officials who served under the Goodluck Jonathan administration and their accomplices in the private sector will begin in earnest once an Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice is appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

A presidency source, who confirmed this, said preliminary investigations had enabled the Buhari administration to identify some ex-government officials – mostly former ministers and heads of parastatals — as well as other persons in the public or private sector who helped to conceal their ill-gotten wealth for prosecution.

He added that the list of ex-government officials cuts across mainly the oil and gas sector, among other sectors, but their prosecution would only start in earnest once an attorney general who is “constitutionally recognised as the chief law officer is appointed by the president”.

Read More: thisdaylive