Ebonyi State Government Seals off Abakaliki rice mill over alleged poison

The Ebonyi state government on Tuesday sealed the Abakaliki Rice Mill limited over the alleged infiltration of poisoned and adulterated rice into the mill.

The Senior special Assistant on internal security, Dr Kenneth Ugbala, who announced the state government’s decision at a news briefing, stated that the closure was with instant impact.

Ugbala stated that the state government council had obtained the news of the poisoned and adulterated rice with shock and deliberated considerably on it to save lives of citizens.

“The SEC eventually directed the concerned Ministries, Departments and agencies of health, agriculture, commerce and industry and internal security to seal the rice mill for full investigations to be accomplished.

“The Ministry of environment, which first acquired the report, informed us that the products are not match for human consumption.

“The number one purpose of each government is to protect the lives of its citizens as we need to prevent unsuspecting residents from buying such products,” he said.

Commenting in addition on the scenario, the state’s Commissioner for information and Orientation, Emmanuel Onwe, cited that the government did not know the source from where the products infiltrated the marketplace and the form of poison involved.

“We do not know whether they're rat or other sorts of poisons however the commissioner for environment quickly dispatched a team to the mill on receiving the information of the infiltration.

“The team confiscated some samples of the product and they had labels of ‘not fit for human consumption’ boldly written on them.