One of the warehouses sealed by Kano anti-graft Commission on Sunday

By Maduabuchi Nmeribeh/Kano

The Kano Public Complaint and Anti Corruption Commission (PCACC), on Sunday, stormed Dawaunu International Grain Market,  Kantin Kwari Textile Market and Singer Grocery Market, sealing over 10 warehouses identified to be hoarding essential commodities and food stuff in the face of food scarcity troubling Nigerians.

Chairman of the Commission, Bar. Muhuyi Magaji Rimin Gado had before the raid operation advised traders and dealers of essential commodities to make their goods available to the market for people to buy at stable prices.

The goods confiscated in the sealed warehouses were worth hundreds of millions of Naira.

The operation was a result of intelligence gathering by a special committee set up by the Commission to identify warehouses where foodstuff and essential materials were being hoarded to be sold at exorbitant prices to the public.

No arrest was made during the operation as owners of the affected warehouses went into hiding upon information that agents of the Commission were coming for a raid operation.

Bar, Muhuyi, however, insisted that owners of the warehouses would be identified and be made to face the full wrath of the law.

According to him, already, the warehouse owners have been issued notice to report to the anti graft Commission preparatory to facing charges before the court of law for their illegal activities that are having negative impacts on the masses.

Briefing journalists after the raid, he said: “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 instant rise in the price of essential commodities. It was such that within a week, rice had jumped from N52,000 to N61,000 within a week.

“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 instant 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 from where they have gotten to.

“As you can see now we are going around the warehouses and we met a lot of issues which after we go back to the office we are going to digest.

“One fundamental problem is each stalk we enter they will be claiming that it is the World Food Program Store. We wonder if the World Food program will starve the country while taking the food somewhere else.

“You can see, I was told here today that the price of maize has jumped from N30,000 to N60,000. So you see, a hundred per cent increase, this is unacceptable. You can see these stores, there are hundreds of millions of Naira worth of hoarded commodities.

“We are taking over the stores now and we are going to make some certain arrests because these will not be tolerated. This is not a market, this is a warehouse. We have activated our intelligence mechanism and they have come up with reports on where and how they are hoarding it.”