CACOVID Rice Supplier Clears Air, Counts Losses

The CACOVID vendor whose warehouse was vandalised, Mr. Alabi Femi Adeoye, decried the untoward situation, stating that the looted rice at the warehouse were meant to be supplied to Abia, Cross-Rivers, Plateau and Taraba states.

He said that his company, which has been operating in Oyo State in the past five years, lost millions of Naira to the attack.

“Oyo State Government was not part of the states we were asked to supply by CACOVID,” he said, explaining how the looters swooped on his warehouse, vandalised it and carted away the food items especially the 1,850 bags of rice he procured.

He said: “On 30th of September, they(CACOVID) contacted us if we could handle the supply of rice for them. We have an interest in farming. We are farmers and we have a good network with every state. We told them we could handle it, which we were able to get the purchase order.

“After that, we instructed our team to manage it from Ibadan, simply because we believe we can also generate revenue in Ibadan and create more jobs. We have farms in Ibadan and it has been profitable for us. And we have been able to employ a good number of the indigenes to manage our farms for us. So, these are the reasons why they gave us the job.

“Last week, we commenced this job to supply but, to my surprise, Ibadan was not captured as part of the states we should supply. We were asked to supply Abia, Cross-Rivers, Plateau and Taraba States.

“Other agents were given different states. I am sure one of the farmers was given Oyo State. So, we were asked to bring our rice from Kebbi and a part of Niger State.

“We have been operating in Ibadan for quite some time. We have two warehouses in Ibadan; there is one on Iwo Road and the other is at Lagelu, which we have been managing for like five years”.