School feeding programme: Jigawa govt suspends contractors over poor meals, fraud

From: Mika’il Tsoho, Dutse

The Jigawa State Government has suspended several contractors handling boarding school feeding programmes over allegations of providing poor-quality meals and inflating numbers of students.
The State Commissioner for the Ministry of Special Duties and Humanitarian Affairs, Hon. Auwal D. Sankara, announced this in Dutse yesterday.
He told journalists that the suspension followed visits by a monitoring team to various schools to assess the quality of food given to students, noting that some of the food was unsafe for human consumption.
Hon. Sankara stated that the administration of Governor Malam Umar Namadi is committed to creating an enabling environment for teaching and learning.
“As part of this agenda, the governor increased the cost of school feeding per student from N160 to N460.
“Governor Namadi made this increase after consultations, ensuring the amount could provide students with quality, balanced diets. However, during our visits, we found that most contractors are not delivering what they were paid for,” he said.
At the Girls Model Boarding School in Kudai, inspectors discovered a major discrepancy between official records and the actual number of students. While feeding records indicated 1,008 students, a physical headcount revealed only 681.
At the Government Commercial Secondary School in Dutse, a consignment of supplied rice was found to be of very poor quality and was instantly rejected for failing to meet required standards.
The Commissioner added that, based on the conditions observed in most schools visited, the government has suspended some contractors and will conduct investigations for further action.
He said some of the suspended contractors include Alhaji Sule Zai, Jibrin Maifata, Kamalu Sulaiman, Alhaji Abdullahi Abanderi, and Alhaji Umaru Chamo, among others.
Hon. Sankara stated that the investigation would not spare anyone found guilty of undermining the state government’s policy to reposition the education sector.
He, however, vowed to continue with such monitoring exercises across all public institutions with feeding programmes including hospitals.