The Jigawa State Government has sacked and suspended some school feeding contractors over alleged fraud, supply of substandard food items and inflation of students’ figures in some boarding schools across the state.
The Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and Special Duties, Alhaji Auwalu Sankara, disclosed this while speaking with journalists on Thursday in Dutse.
Sankara said the action followed complaints from parents and members of the public, as well as unannounced inspections carried out by officials of the ministry in schools within Dutse Local Government Area.
He said the measures were aimed at sanitising the state’s school feeding programme and safeguarding the welfare of pupils.
“The inspections were meant to check the reality on the ground and ensure that our children are not being shortchanged,” he said.
According to the commissioner, at the Girls Model Boarding School, Kudai, Dutse metropolis, the monitoring team discovered a discrepancy of more than 30 per cent between the reported students’ population and the actual headcount.
“We found only 681 students instead of the reported 1,008,” Sankara said.
He added that the soup served to students at the school was found to be unfit for consumption, leading to the suspension of the contractor, Jibrin Maifata.
Sankara further said that at the Government Commercial Secondary School, Dutse, the inspection team rejected a supply of low-grade rice, resulting in the termination of the contract awarded to Alhaji Sule Zai, who is also the chairman of the feeding contractors.
In another development, he disclosed that three contractors – Kamalu Sulaiman, Alhaji Abdullahi Abanderi and Alhaji Umaru Chamo – were suspended for delivering incomplete food supplies to the School for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Dutse.
However, the commissioner said that at the School for the Visually Impaired, Limawa, the students’ headcount tallied with official records, adding that the contractor, Adamu Khalid, was retained for satisfactory performance.
“While we are cracking down on errant contractors, we also acknowledge and appreciate those who are doing their job honestly,” Sankara said.
He warned that the state government would not tolerate any compromise in students’ welfare, stressing that anyone found diverting resources meant for pupils would be made to face the law.
Efforts to get reactions from the affected contractors and school heads were unsuccessful, as they declined to comment on the matter.
Meanwhile, some stakeholders commended the government’s action, with members of the Jigawa-Next Forum urging the authorities to ensure that suspended contractors refund funds for services not rendered and that credible replacements be engaged promptly to avoid disruption of the feeding programme.
