Nightwatch Press last evening busted a syndicate by Police at the Freetown East Police Region and a popular Lebanese business entity, SAAD Group Limited, in which the two are involved in facilitating the flooding of our markets with thousands of bags of stinking and smelly rice.
Our undercover reporter who busted this unholy syndicate at one of SAAD Group’s stores at Cline Town, East of Freetown had reported that fully dressed Police men from Ross Road Police Station under the directives of their authorities, are facilitating the sale of the stinking rice to hundreds of members of the public including market women for Le105, 000 per bag.
Our Reporter had gone to the store which was supposed to be heavily guarded from people who might to want to access the stores harboring this stinky rice into the market, had successfully visited the stores and bought a bag of rice at Le 105,000 right in the presence of the Police and the President of the Sierra Leone Health Services Workers’Union, Mr. Sankoh Sesay.
Our reporter also witnessed a group of Police Officers sharing the proceeds from the sale of the rice in the view of the public.
An interview with one of the officials of SAAD Group revealed that they have two types of rice in their stores: the one is for dumping while the other is for disposal to poultry farms.
The rice, according to our findings and evidence available to us, is not even good for animal consumption not to say it is good for human consumption.
The condition of the so-called stores where the rice is or other food items that are stored by the Lebanese businesses for human consumption is alarming and has a tendency to lead to a health emergency.
SAAD Group Limited and Ahmed Mackie who are suppliers for both the Police and the Military have been implicated severally in the act of mixing-up stinking rice with the good one.
How are we sure that these companies are not mixing-up the rice they supply to our Military and Police Forces?
The Standards Bureau, Police and the Sierra Leone Health Services Workers’ Union together with other stakeholders, have been compromised by the Lebanese folks and have allowed these acts to continue at the detriment of the health of the nation.
The existence of a whole health department at the Queen Elizabeth Quay is no longer useful as many of the unwanted products and goods have found their way into our markets right under the noses of these stakeholders who are busy extorting monies from defaulters.
Desperate and irate youths were also seen outside waiting to storm the stores to collect the rotten and stinky rice for possible sale to our markets.
How comes that foreign nationals would succeed in beating all established health structures at the Quay to flood our markets with rotten rice, is a million dollar question?
The Ministry of Health and Sanitation needs to thoroughly investigate the lack of structures at the quay to monitor the shipment of unwanted food items.
In subsequent editions we will expose the syndicate at the Port with regards the clearing of expired food stuffs especially with foreign businesses.