Four people who are in charge of the store of COPRORIKI Rice Farmers Cooperative operating in Gikundavura Sector, Rusizi District, have been arrested and suspected of stealing 1 ton and 958 bushels of rice worth 1.1 million reais. Rwanda.
Those guards who were detained at the Muganza National Police Service (RIB) Station, are Ingabire Lucie, 26, who was a day guard, Masengesho Potier, 40, Ntakirutimana Leopold, 32, and Bizimana Dominique, who He was 32 years old.
The rice that was bought by the COTICORI rice processing plant left it in the warehouse, the management of that plant came back to check it and found that the 38 tons bought were missing seven bags and many more were removed.
It is said that one of the guards named Bizimana found the key to the lock of this store, which is confusing because they found it was not a fluke, and the normal keys of this lock are there.
Baziki Yusufu, the Executive Secretary of Gikundamvura Sector, told Imvaho Nshya that those arrested admitted that they stole the rice.
He said, “Those who were arrested admitted that they were the ones who stole it but they did not explain it clearly because the door was not cut, they did not break it, and they did not say where they put it. However, one of the security guards of the night store was found with the key to the lock, he refused to say more and we hope he will explain it to justice.”
He says that they were arrested on Friday, February 23, and he thinks that they went through the loophole of the law that states that a company that buys rice if it does not take it away hires guards to protect it.
I believe that those who guarded the warehouse agreed to steal it because they felt that they would not be respected as the ones who had to manage it because you were not in their hands, even though they knew for sure that you were still in the warehouse with one of the farmers who apparently had not been touched.
After the harvest of this rice, Imvaho Nsya spoke with the Director of the Coprorik Cooperative Hamenyimana Oscar and the owner of the COTICORI factory Hahirumukiza Alphonse.
COPRORIKI Director Hamenyimana Oscar, says that this rice was stolen due to the negligence of the company and its warehouse manager, because according to the law, if the company buys rice from the Cooperative’s books and its warehouse, and it is taken to the company that paid for it, nothing is left. .
The company allegedly paid for it as usual, came to test it and did not take it and did not report it to him as a manager.
He was later told that the thief had been in the cooperative store for 3 days without his knowledge.
He said, “We found that 958 tons were stolen. The company had to transport a little more than 38 tons, including 32 tons of its own and 6 tons of the people it had to pick up. The mill that measured the rice had paid. When you buy rice, don’t take it, make a report to the Cooperative management, and bring guards to protect your rice, because the Cooperative guards will not accept theirs.
Once you have left the hands of the cooperative, you have gone to the hands of the investor.
He says that the company came to test it on Friday, February 16, saying that they took it without knowing what was discussed with the security manager.
When he asked why they said that they would come to see it, and they did not come for 3 days, he heard that the person who allowed them to build it told him that it was the guards who came to take it away.
The manager says he called the factory, and they told him they would pick it up on Tuesday, February 20.
When they arrived at four o’clock in the morning, they called him and told him that you may have been eaten because they lost 7 bags and the other one they opened the bags and removed a few.
The company tells us to track down the thieves. But why do we follow them because the farmers we are responsible for are there? We would be in trouble if we didn’t look at it.”
The owner of the factory, Hahirumukiza Alphonse, says that they went to test the cooperative knowing that they were not the authorities because the road they were passing through was in a bad condition, that is why they did not bring security guards from others.
He says that the law they are talking about, pays the guards if the cooperative does not have a warehouse, such as the one that has a lot of them. At that time, they took him outside and put the stakes on him, and then they found guards.
He said: We went to test it without authority because the road was in a bad condition, the director of the cooperative knew. While we were waiting for the light to pack it, that’s why it took all these days, we told the person in charge to look at it for us, we gave them our key and they refused that they didn’t believe it, we went to look at it and found it stolen. We were not going to appoint guards who were there, they also guarded the farmers who were with them in the warehouse.
He added, “When we found out that we were stolen, we told the Director who gave us inspectors and he would not give them to us without believing that he had warned them. Their guards have been arrested but we cannot sue them because they are not ours. We are talking to the Cooperative about how it will pay us because it is worth 100 million. Just as people who have been working together for 5 years I feel it will be resolved before it gets anywhere.”
Hamirumukiza Alphonse, assured the people who had donated their rice to be processed that they will not stop them from seeing that the suspects have been arrested.
He asked the Cooperative not to ignore the matter because the rice was stolen from their warehouse and it appears that those who stole it were not from outside the Cooperative.
