The Nation Newspaper

Tag: beans

  • Beans supplier ‘defrauds’ customer of N3.715m

    A BEANS supplier, Waziri Buhari, 37, was yesterday arraigned before an Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court for alleged N3,715,000 million fraud.

    Waziri was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Y.O Aje-Afunwa for allegedly defrauding Michael Nwajei of the cash.

    Prosecuting Inspector Peter Nwagwu said Waziri committed the offence on December 18, 2017, February 9, 26 and March 22 at Millennium Village Vocational Centre, Eti-Osa, Lagos.

    Nwagwu said Waziri collected the money from Nwajei in four tranches of N480,000, N310,000, N15,000 and N120,000  under the pretence of supplying 300 bags of beans.

    Waziri pleaded not guilty.

    Chief Magistrate Aje-Afunwa granted him N750,000 bail, with two sureties in the like sum.

    She adjourned till July 27.

  • Three brothers held for applying chemical to beans

    The police have arrested three brothers for allegedly applying insecticides on bags of beans meant for sale.

    Faith Ogbonna, 28, his brothers, Sunday, 23 and Chijoke, were paraded yesterday by Lagos State Commissioner of Police Fatai Owoseni, at the Command Headquarters, Ikeja.

    Owoseni warned the public to be wary of the type of beans they buy. He said the bothers were arrested in Alagbado by the Alakuko Police Division following a tip off.

    Two of the Ebonyi State-born siblings admitted applying insecticide on the beans.

    Faith, the shop owner, said he learnt the trick in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, where he saw traders using chemicals to preserve beans.

    Although Faith claimed that he never instructed Chijoke to apply the insecticide on the beans, he admitted that the chemical helped to prevent stored beans from being infested by ants.

    He said: “I buy bags of beans from an open market in Maiduguri. After buying, I come to Lagos to sell. I own a shop at 1, Adenekan Street, Alagbado from where I sell to members of the public. Sellers of beans in Maiduguri at times use insecticide as preservatives for beans. But after applying it they will store it for months, at times up to six months before selling. Though I am not the one who instructed my boy to do so, I was in Ibadan for prayers when the incident occurred.

    “I was still in Ibadan when I received a call that I was needed at the station. When I inquired why, the police told me that they arrested my boy because he was seen applying insecticide on bags of beans in my shop. I came back immediately only to be arrested by the police.”

    Sunday explained that he was on a motorbike when he saw a crowd gathered outside his elder brother’s shop. He got off the bike to find out what was happening, and was apprehended by the policemen.

    Sunday, who also owns a foodstuff shop in Alagbado, denied using insecticide to preserve his beans. He said he usually bought only the quantity he could sell, wondering why he was arrested with his brothers.

    Chijoke admitted to have applied the chemical and insecticide. When asked if he also consumed the beans sprayed with insecticide, he nodded.

    “I only added a little amount. It is to preserve beans. Several persons do it. It does not kill because any beans sprayed is not immediately displayed for sale. People who buy several bags of beans, particularly when it is cheap, use chemicals to preserve them till the price gets higher, thereby making much profit,” he said.

  • NEPC rues EU’s ban on beans

    The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has bemoaned the ban by the European Union (EU) on the exportation of Nigerian beans.

    NEPC said the ban, announced early this year, has been extended to 2020, adding that the discovery of high residue of preservative chemicals led to the ban.

    Director, Export Office, NEPC, Matthew Iranloye said this in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, at a two day workshop/demonstration of agricultural produce’s drying equipment for improvement, preservation and export competiveness.

    Iranloye said, “The time it got to the market was not the time it was supposed to get to the market. By the time it got to the market, the residue was so high that it was not good for human consumption. That one has been consistent and that was what led to the ban.

    “It has been extended for three years. It was supposed to be lifted in 2017 but they look at what is still on ground and said it does not seem that Nigeria is getting it right. We have to redouble our efforts. The next three years, it is still banned but it can still be lifted before the end of that time being 2020. If they see that we have commitment and what we will not come upon.

    “It is a big market for Nigerian food. Out of about five black in the Diaspora, about three of them are Nigerians. That means that if we cannot get the supply of those items that they crave for Nigeria, we are then assist other African economy.”

    He added that NEPC is championing inter-ministerial committee that is working on the quality issues in all its ramifications to see to it that we get it right and consistently do.

    A consultant to NEPC and resource person at the workshop, Olumuyiwa Aiyegbusi put the country’s post-harvest losses at the region of N1 trillion in Nigeria.

    Aiyegusi, who is the chairman, Olu Olu Group, said, “it is a major loss for us. Between production and the market, we are losing 25 to 30 percent of what we produce, that is not good enough.

    “It will not give us food security and we cannot export. What we can do to prevent this ugly trend is a wholistic approach by preserving and removing water in a conditioned storage. Produce like tomatoes, orange, paw-paw, etc .

    “You can also do the same by removing water from mangoes or pineapple. In other words most of our produce can be preserved by removing water and can be reconstituted when you need it.”

  • Reps wade into EU, Nigeria’s beans’ export ban

    Reps wade into EU, Nigeria’s beans’ export ban

    The House of Representatives has expressed disappointment with the decision of the European Union (EU) to extend to three years its ban of the exportation of Nigeria’s dried beans into the European market.

    The initial ban was to lapse  this month before the latest extension due to Nigeria’s inability to work towards the lifting of the initial ban according to the EU.

    The House has, therefore, mandated its  Committees on Agriculture, and Commerce and Industry to investigate the extension.

    Sponsor of the motion of urgent public importance,  Ferdinand Nwankwo (APGA, Anambra) in his debate recalled that last June, the EU banned the export of dried beans from Nigeria on the ground that the produce contained high level of pesticide considered hazardous to human health.

    He said: “The ban was to last till June 30, 2016 to allow Nigerian authorities time to provide an export control plan and assurance that the beans exported complied with EU Minimal Risk Level for Hazardous Substances.

    “It was, however, of  concern that few days to the expiration of the ban, EU had extended it for three years.

    “Several relevant agencies of government including the Standards Organisation of Nigeria  (SON), National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment claimed to be collaborating with each other to resolve the issue before close of the deadline.

    “The alleged reason for the extension was that Nigeria did not do enough to lift the ban during the period of suspension but the effect of the extended ban on Nigerian economy should be of concern, especially as the current administration was focused on diversifying the economy through export of agricultural products.”

    The joint Committee has two weeks to carry out the assignment and report back to the House for further legislative action.

  • EU extends beans import ban from Nigeria

    EU extends beans import ban from Nigeria

    The European Union (EU) has extended the ban it placed in June last year on the importation of dried beans from Nigeria by three years.

    The Coordinating Director, Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), Dr Vincent Isegbe, who spoke yesterday, lamented that the ban extension came when the Federal Government and its relevant agencies were working to ensure that the June deadline to lift the ban was met.

    The EU had banned the produce on the ground that it contained high level of pesticide considered dangerous to human health.

    Isegbe quoted the official journal of the EU of accusing Nigeria of not doing enough to lift the ban during the period of suspension

    “The continued presence of dichlorvos (pesticide) in dried beans imported from Nigeria and maximum residue levels of pesticides shows that compliance with food law requirement as regards pesticide residual cannot be achieved in the short term.

    “The duration of the importation prohibition should therefore be extended for an additional period of three years to allow Nigeria implement the appropriate risk-management measure and provide required guarantees.

  • Beans: From Northeast to Lagos

    Beans: From Northeast to Lagos

    Though many markets, supermarkets, and neighbourhood kiosks sell beans, the official beans ‘warehouse’ in Lagos State is the Irepodun Market, Iddo. Traders popularly refer to it as Iddo-Elewa.

    There, the stalls are all laden with bags of beans and the heavy duty vehicles and trailers that throng the market daily deliver just one product – beans.

    According to Abdulfatai Akanji, the secretary-general of the Irepodun Market Association, the bulk of the beans consignment comes from the Northwest region of the country.

    Whether, it is oloyin or banjara, drum, Olo 1, or Olo 2, it is largely Yobe, Gombe, and Borno states that produce the beans consumed in Nigeria. And in those states, the bulk of the farming of beans takes place in the rural areas.

    After harvest, the beans farmers take their commodity to specialised beans market where traders from other parts of the country come to buy them.

    This is usually a tough journey. Akanji said: “Farmers from the remote areas do bring their goods after harvesting to the major cities where they have larger markets. Some of these markets are daily, weekly or five-day markets. Whenever they bring their beans there, our people from here who are traders would go there and purchase some of those from the farmers.”

    In Kano, the beans market is called Dawanau; in Borno State, it is the Muna market Maiduguri while it is Potiskum market in Yobe State. These markets operate daily and it is to those markets that the Iddo traders from Lagos go to buy beans.

    Akanji also said that though trade in beans is huge in Kano, planting of beans doesn’t thrive as much. With the transaction between the traders and the farmers over, the traders then pool resources to charter trailers to convey the beans down to Lagos.

    This is usually a 30-tonne truck loads about 300 one hundred kilograms bags of beans or 600 fifty-kilogram bags. And this journey takes about three to five days, according to Akanji, depending on how sound the engine of the truck is. For Lagos-bound trucks from Kano, it usually takes about three days.

    And daily, as trucks arrive in Irepodun market, retailers, restaurants, and individuals in need of beans in large quantity also throng daily to Iddo-Elewa to buy beans.

    “People from Badagry, Epe, Lekki, Ikorodu, Ikotun, and from all over Lagos State,” he said, “come here to buy beans.”