The Jigawa State Government has suspended and dismissed several school feeding contractors over allegations of fraud, substandard food supplies and inflated student figures in some boarding schools across the state.
The action followed complaints from parents and members of the public, as well as unannounced inspections by officials of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Special Duties in schools within Dutse Local Government Area.
Speaking to journalists on Thursday, the Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and Special Duties, Auwalu Sankara, said the measures were aimed at sanitising the school feeding programme and safeguarding students’ welfare. “The inspections were meant to check the reality on the ground and ensure that our children are not being shortchanged,” he said.
At the Girls Model Boarding School, Kudai, in Dutse metropolis, Sankara said inspectors uncovered a discrepancy of more than 30 per cent between reported enrolment and the actual student count. “Only 681 students were physically present, compared with the reported figure of 1,008,” he said.
He added that food served at the school was found to be unfit for consumption, leading to the suspension of the contractor, Jibrin Maifata.
At Government Commercial Secondary School, Dutse, the monitoring team reportedly rejected a consignment of low-grade rice. The contract of the supplier, Alhaji Sule Zai, who also chairs the contractors’ association, was subsequently terminated.
Sankara further 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, he said inspections at the School for the Visually Impaired, Limawa, showed compliance, with student numbers matching official records. The contractor, Adamu Khalid, was retained for what the government described as satisfactory performance.
The commissioner warned that the government would not tolerate any compromise on student welfare and vowed to prosecute anyone found diverting public resources. Efforts to obtain comments from the affected contractors and school administrators were unsuccessful.
Some stakeholders have welcomed the government’s action, urging authorities to recover funds for services not rendered and to appoint credible replacements quickly to prevent disruption of the feeding programme.
