Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Yemi Olowolabi, has explained that its free school feeding programme was suspended due to discrepancies in bank accounts submitted by food vendors.

He said many of the vendors did not have bank accounts before they registered for the programme, but hurriedly opened one without genuine Biometrics Verification Number (BVN).

He said: “They were not paid, essentially due to the discrepancies in the accounts submitted by the vendors. For many of them, the names they submitted when they were registering did not tally with their BVN. As a result, money could not be paid into their accounts.”

Special Adviser, Public and Inter-Governmental Relations, Mrs. Olubunmi Ademosu, alleged some of the vendors wanted to sublet the work to others.

She said the agency found that about 95 per cent of pupils in the Akoko areas of Ondo State were not benefitting from the programme when it took off and did not want to allow the public to politicise the issue.