The Governor Umar Ganduje administration has sealed Tiamin Rice Limited, located along Zaria road in Kano.
The government, in the Closing Order seen by reporters Sunday night, stated that the company’s activities were injurious to residents and coronavirus patients.
“You are required to close your premises forthwith due to complaints of air pollution with (sic) aggravate coronavirus patients”,
It read.
Kano currently has 37 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the world.
When contacted, the Commissioner for Information, Muhammad Garba, directed our correspondent to the Commissioner of Environment, Kabiru Ibrahim Getso.
Getso confirmed the closure and explained that what the state government did was “normal routine action”.
Narrating the circumstances surrounding the matter, the official recalled that the ministry received three different petitions about pollution from the host community.
Getso said:
“The first one was some months back. They wrote to us that the company contaminates the environment during their milling process.“We sent a team from the Pollution Control Department, they assessed the situation and established that pollution was going on. We issued an Abatement Notice to the company and they replied that the pollution has been abated.“After some time, we got the second complaint from another set of people in the same community, that the company was still polluting the area.“They were demanding its closure. Our staff did an in-depth assessment and discovered that some machine components were spoilt and adding to the level of pollution in higher magnitude, compared to what was recorded previously. We issued another Abatement Notice and told them to make repairs.“Again, we received another petition – the third one – also demanding the closure of the company. This one (complaint) linked the pollution to medical and respiratory issues like asthma, not just coronavirus.“They alleged that the pollution may aggravate the symptoms of coronavirus but that was not the main reason we took the action. In the first two instances, the ministry did not close the company“Up to the time they stopped operating, pollution was going on. As a responsible ministry, saddled with the responsibility of safeguarding the health of Kano people and the community in particular, this time around, we felt we should do what is right and we closed down the company. That is what happened. No politics, this is purley a professional approach”,
Getso concluded.
But Tiamin Rice Limited, in a statement by Aliyu Ibrahim, the Deputy Managing Director, has alleged a witch-hunt.
He noted that the Kano administration’s decision was conveyed “in a ‘Notice for Closing Order’ dated April 18, 2020, citing unfounded allegations of air pollution that aggravates coronavirus patients.
Ibrahim pointed out that there are nearly 30 rice mills operating in Kano State, “but our company is the only one affected by the order. Neither state nor federal health officials, nor Ministry of Environment inspectors came to our premises to take any samples of the said pollution.
“Although the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria (RIPAN), which we are a member, has been exempted from the lockdown order by the state government, we nevertheless halted our production for one week to put in robust internal measures against the spread of coronavirus.“Since halting production our workers have been on break and our engines and boilers switched off. When and how did the ministry arrive at the premise of “pollution that aggravates Coronavirus patients” when our plant is deactivated?“We view this orchestrated plan to close our 320-tonne plant as economic sabotage against President Muhammadu Buhari administration, who in his recent speech assured Nigerians that food processing, distribution and retail companies would be exempted from the lockdown.”
The company disclosed that it is following legal avenues to seek redress and informed its customers and distributors not to panic over the development.
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