Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, an All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftain in Osun State has urged President Bola Tinubu to set up a special taskforce for the distribution of the approved 42,000 metric tonnes of grains from strategic reserves to Nigerians.
Oyintiloye, while speaking with journalists on Sunday in Osogbo, also stated that setting up of the taskforce was necessary to ensure that the grains reached the targeted Nigerians.
He also said for the masses to benefit from the free grains, the president must put up a taskforce to cripple the activities of saboteurs, who were desperate to make gains from the pains of Nigerians.
He, however, said if the president wanted the poor Nigerians to feel the impact of the released grains, a special taskforce should be constituted to ensure its effective distribution.
He said past experiences had shown that the Federal Government's free grains had not been reaching the targeted Nigerians due to the activities of saboteurs.
Oyintiloye said it would be a great disservice to the country and to the efforts of the president, if the good gesture of the free grains is allowed to be hijacked by private individuals.
While commending the president for the release of the grains, he said those who were expert in sabotaging the efforts of the government in ameliorating the suffering of Nigerians must not be allowed to truncate the distribution process.
“There is no doubt that there is hunger in the land, but the efforts of the government in minimising the problems should not be allowed to be truncated by the enemies of the country.
“And that is why I appeal to the president to set up this special taskforce so as to outsmart those that are waiting to divert the grains.
“People are hungry and this free grain to be distributed by the government must get to the masses and its must not be diverted.
“With the presidential taskforce in place and with effective monitoring, it will be difficult for anyone, no matter how placed, to have access to diverting the grains”, he said.
He also said the president's directive that security agencies go after those hoarding food is a welcome development and it had started yielding positive results.
He said with this presidential directive, those who were hoarding food to make unjustifiable gains would be brought to justice.
“The president should continue to braze up against enemies of this nation, who are making life unbearable for the common man,” he added.
