Buyers Accuse Officials of Hoarding Lake Rice

Some prospective buyers of the Lagos State rice, LAKE rice, on Friday, expressed difficulty in getting the product.

The buyers, who besieged the Ojo Warehouse, venue of the sales, claimed that the officials were hoarding the rice and making it difficult for them to get.

One of the eager buyers, an Islamic cleric, Mr Femi Taire, who spoke to our correspondent said they were being cheated and sidelined by the officials.

“I have been coming here since Tuesday without getting a bag to buy, all we hear are excuses that they are waiting for a directive or the POS is malfunctioning.

“But we still saw people getting rice from here, sold to them by these same officials going through the other door, it is frustrating,” he said.

Another resident, Mrs Adebipe Dawudu, said, “The trouble in getting this rice is too much, the officials seem to be the one making it elusive to people because some big men are getting it from them.

“I saw one vehicle loaded with 40 bags of rice yesterday (Thursday), while we were still queuing for a bag. There are still bags of rice inside the warehouse as one can still see some bags from here,” she said.

Dawudu, who said she had been going to the warehouse since Tuesday, added that not up to 70 bags had been sold to people on the queue at N17,000 per bag since the sales began.

An official, who was addressed as the sales manager, declined to speak with our correspondent but addressed the crowd saying that the outfit had exhausted the number given to it to sell.

He said they were not hoarding the commodity as claimed by the prospective buyers, but advised them to wait for a further directive to begin to sell.