School Feeding: Jigawa Suspends Contractors Over Poor Meals, Fraud

Jigawa State government has suspended some contractors handling boarding school feeding over allegations of providing poor meals and inflating student numbers.

The commissioner for Special Duties and Humanitarian Affairs, Hon. Auwal Sankara, disclosed this in Dutse, the state capital.

He told journalists that the suspension followed visits by a monitoring team to various schools to assess the quality of food served to students, noting that some of it was unsafe for human consumption.

Sankara said the administration of Governor Malam Umar Namadi remained committed to creating an environment that enables 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 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 Government Commercial Secondary School in Dutse, a consignment of supplied rice was found to be of inferior 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 further investigations for possible action.

He listed some of the suspended contractors as Alhaji Sule Zai, Jibrin Maifata, Kamalu Sulaiman, Alhaji Abdullahi Abanderi and Alhaji Umaru Chamo, among others.

Sankara said the investigation would not spare anyone found guilty of undermining the government’s policy to reposition the education sector to provide access to quality education for every child, regardless of parental socio-economic status or geographical location.

He vowed to continue with such monitoring exercises in public institutions with feeding programmes, including hospitals, to ensure only safe and quality food is used to feed the targeted or needy population.