By Edzorna Francis Mensah
The NDC Caucus in Parliament has accused the government of supervising the distribution of unwholesome rice to SHS students nationwide and demanded the immediate arrest and prosecution of the directors of Lamens Investments Africa Limited.
According to the Caucus, the board and management of the National Food Buffer Stock Company must be sanctioned for allowing their storage facility to be used for this egregious act and for operating unregistered storage facilities across the country.
“Such recklessness, which sacrifices the health of our students for corrupt transactions, must not go unpunished,” they declared.
At a press conference addressed by Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the NDC Caucus in Parliament raised concerns about the alleged criminal and callous re-bagging of 22,000 50kg bags of expired and contaminated Moshosho rice from India by the National Food Buffer Stock Company and Lamens Investments Africa Limited, which were then fed to SHS students.
Mr. Ablakwa emphasized, “The Ministry of Education must be probed for their conduct in this despicable affair — not only for supervising this rot, which severely endangers the health of SHS students, but also for their reported role, as alleged by FDA officials, in piling undue pressure to get the FDA to back off.”
He added that the Caucus would not rest until justice is served. “Our SHS students must never be subjected to this unwarranted callousness and heartlessness, just because an unscrupulous few seek to enrich themselves.”
According to Mr. Ablakwa, their diligent parliamentary oversight has uncovered a devious criminal conspiracy and the complicity of state institutions in endangering the lives of thousands of teenagers in Senior High Schools. This was done by re-bagging over 22,000 50kg bags of expired and contaminated Moshosho rice from India and distributing them to schools as Made-in-Ghana rice without expiry dates, all to enrich a few corrupt and unscrupulous individuals.
Providing further details, the MP disclosed that on December 20, 2023, the Ashanti Regional Office of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) received an alert from a patriotic Ghanaian about a suspicious re-packaging exercise that had not been authorized by the FDA.
This unauthorized re-packaging was reportedly being carried out at the storage facility of the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) in the Ashanti Region.
When FDA officials acted on the alert, they discovered that a similar alert had been received by the Ashanti Regional Police Command, which had promptly moved in to close the storage facility.
“The FDA and the Ashanti Regional Police Command then commenced investigations into the matter. The Ashanti Regional FDA’s investigations revealed the following damning findings, as contained in an intercepted report signed by its Ashanti Regional Head, John Laryea Odai-Tettey,” Mr. Ablakwa noted.
Moshosho Rice (25% broken white rice) with registration number FDA/Ce 20-701 was imported by Lamens Investments Africa Limited.
The notify party is the National Food Buffer Stock Company.
The rice was exported from India by Satya Balajee Rice Industries PVT Ltd.
In total, 33,000 bags of 50kg rice were imported.
The National Food Buffer Stock storage facility in Kumasi received 22,000 bags of 50kg rice at the time of the alert, while the remaining 10,000 bags were stored at a bonded warehouse in Tema known as Lynbrok.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa charged the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), teacher unions, and all Ghanaians to demand that no Senior High School should ever again receive food items that have been criminally re-packaged and lack expiry dates.
“Our side in the respective parliamentary committees has agreed to initiate inquiries into this atrocious affair,” he concluded.