Kano unseals Tiamin rice company

The inspector-general of police (IGP) and the attorney-general of Kano state have unsealed Tiamin rice company as ordered by a federal high court in Abuja.

The Kano state government had shut the rice company for allegedly being too close to a COVID-19 isolation centre. The state also alleged that the fume being emitted from the rice mill was harmful to COVID-19 patients at the centre.

Aggrieved by the seal up, Tiamin multi-services global Ltd, Tiamin rice limited and one Aliyu Ali Ibrahim instituted a fundamental rights enforcement suit marked: FHC/ABJ/448/2020 against the inspector-general of police, Kano state commissioner of police, Kano state government and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC).

The plaintiffs said the distance of the mill is over 20kms away from the isolation centre at Sani Abacha Stadium. The rice mill is said to produce 320 metric tonnes of rice daily and has 223 workers on its payroll and over 100 casual staff.

They also said being a food production company, they were exempted from the lockdown imposed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Okon Abang, a judge, had on May 4, ordered the Kano state government to unseal the rice company.

Abang had held that “the sealing off of the rice processing mill and denial of lawful access without any order of competent court of law backing up the sealing off constituted a violation of the owners’ fundamental rights under Sections 33, 34, 43 and 44 of the 1999 Constitution and is therefore illegal and unconstitutional”.

Rather than comply with the judgment, the IGP and the Kano commissioner of police filed a fresh motion on May 15, seeking to set aside the judgment or stay the execution.

Reacting to the fresh motion, Adegboyega Awomolo, counsel to the applicants, said: “They have shown inhumane treatment to innocent employees of the judgment creditors trapped in the facility since 18th April 2020.

“The judgment debtors do not care even for the lives and welfare of staff for these innocent trapped and locked up in the factory premises.”

But at the hearing of the motion on Wednesday, Awomolo informed the court that all barricades erected at the premises of the company by the police have been removed.

He praised the IGP for complying with the order of the court.