The Police Command in Kano State says it has taken measures to stop hoarding of foodstuffs in the state.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Hussaini Gumel, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano on Tuesday that the security measures had halted the “illegal business in the state”.
According to Gumel, the development came to light after the command engaged major rice millers and other foodstuff producers in the state and asked them to release their wares to the market.
“Over time, the police embarked on talks with identified major rice millers and other food stuff producers and beckoned on them to move the already processed items, if any, from their stores to the markets for retailers’ sales.
“It will interest you to note that most of them declared that they are God-fearing people as they have none in their warehouses and are committed to easing the current hardships.
“The few of them are only with the yet-to-be processed raw materials and are committed to production only on request by the dealership distributers,” he said.
The police commissioner also said that most of the producers were currently facing difficulties sourcing raw materials locally. According to him, they travel to as far as the Republic of Cameroon and Chad to bring them into their processing industries.
“What it means is that there is no hoarding of food stuff in Kano at the moment.
“You only see the available ones in the retailers’ markets such as Dawanau, Singer, Abubakar Rimi and other prominent sales outlets.
“What you see in Kano at the few production factories are mere insignificant raw materials and as soon they are processed, they will be moved to the markets for retailers’ sales,” Gumel stated.