Tinubu Orders Release of Grains from National Food Reserve to Drive Drown Soaring Food Prices

President Tinubu has directed the immediate release of 100 metric tons of assorted food items from the silo of National Food Reserve and the farmers’ Association of Nigeria.

Also, federal government is considering the importation of more food items, to meet the likely shortfall from those to be released from the strategic food reserve.

Information Minister, Mohammed Idris, made this known on Thursday to the state house correspondents at the end of a meeting of the special presidential committee on the emergency food intervention at the Presidential Villa.

The minister said the intervention was a short-term measure to curb the rising costs of food.

In the past days, there had been pockets of protests in Niger, Kano, Kogi and Kaduna states, as well as Suleja, close to Abuja, as food prices hit the rooftop.

Meanwhile, the North’s Apex Islamic Body, Jamatul Nasir Islam (JNI), has called for the immediate release of those arrested by the police during the protests against the food crisis.

Read Also:

NANS Issue 14-Day Deadline to Tinubu to Address Rising Economic Hardships

Secretary General of JNI, Prof. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, in a release warned that the continued detention of the arrested protesters was provocative, considering the prevailing situation in the country.

Instead of arresting protesters, the JNI asked federal government to find immediate solution to the economic hardships ravaging Nigerians.

The minister revealed that the administration will resort to importing to augment any shortages observed after the release of the food items.

Now, the third item is that government is also looking at the possibility, if it becomes absolutely necessary, as an interim measure in the short run to also import some of these commodities, he revealed.

The minister who declined to mention specifics affirmed the FG’s readiness to take punitive measures against those he called food hoarders.