LAKE Rice: Lagos residents express difficulty getting product

Some prospective buyers of the Lagos State subsidised rice on Friday expressed difficulty in getting the product for consumption this yuletide.

The prospective buyers, who besieged the Agric Ojo State Warehouse, venue of the sales, said the officials were making the rice difficult for them to get.

One in the riotous crowd told newsmen in Lagos that the plea by the officials that they had exhausted their stock was a ploy to disperse them for the officials to sell the product to whoever they wished.

Mr. Femi Taire, an Islamic cleric, said the prospective buyers were becoming unruly because they felt that 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 will still see people getting rice from here sold to them by these same officials going through the other door, it is frustrating,” he said.

Mrs. Adebipe Dawudu, who said that she like the brand because it is stone-free, said that the price was not too different from other Nigerian brands in the market.

“My children do not like the stones experienced in some other local brands, it is the stone-free nature that makes the LAKE brand looks as if it is special.

“This trouble 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 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, said that not up to 70 bags had been sold to people in the queue at ₦17,000 per bag since the sales began.

An official. who was addressed as the sales manager, declined to speak with NAN, 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.