2 arrested with WFP relief

Two female marketers, ages 24 and 32 have been arrested with dozens of World Food Programme (WFP) Super Cereal relief cornmeal in the densely pupolated Red Light General Market.

The suspects identified as Julee Teah and Melina Johnson, were apprehended by security officers on Thursday, 25 May while convying the items in a wheelbarrow toward the Redlight-Duala parking station.

The cereal are supplied to hospitals and clinics to feed sick infants and young children between zero and six months and above. The women told The New Dawn that they bought the relief food from an unidentified individual in Paynesville at the price of 1,850LRD per cartoon.

Julee and Melina also disclosed that they purchased over 20 cartoons and sold some to others on Tuesday, May 24 in the same Redlight market for 2,250LRD per cartoon.
According to them, they don’t know where the individual in question who sold the relief items to them came from, explaining it was their very first time buying and selling relief food.

However, the suspects were subsequently taken to the Paynesville police depot for further investigation into the relief food syndicate. Apart from the arrest of the women, the WFP Super Cereals are being sold openly in other parts of Paynesville without any apprenhension whatsoever as though they are for marketing.

Meanwhile, a female patient living with HIV/AIDS (name witheld) who was also arrested with one cartoon of the Super Cereal, was released by security officers after establishing that she legally obtained the item from Benson Hospital in Paynesville, where she is receiving medication.

The lady frowns at some authorities of hospitals and clinics for allegedly selling relief foods meant for patients thereby, denying the intended beneficiaries to go hungry for days due to insufficient supply.

She wonders whether the World Food Programme actually monitors hospitals and clinics it supplied suplementary food to ensure it doesn’t get into the hands of wrong people.
She appeals to government to institute stringent measures to halt the sale of relief items brought in the country.

By Emmanuel Mondaye-Editing by Jonathan Browne