Maize traders on Wednesday petitioned Parliament to intervene on the stopping of maize purchases by the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA).

Representatives of the maize traders presented the petition to the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture.

A new list of trucks which will be offloaded was released and leaving out the 390 trucks which are already in the truck pack and were on the initial list.

Secretary of the grouping Manganaye Kambawuwo, said they are now stranded because they were promised by NFRA that all the registered trucks will be offloaded but only to receive a communication that only 79 Trucks will be offloaded.

“We are paying millions to transporters. NFRA said they were told to transfer the money they were using to buy maize to ADMARC and what we are asking the committee is that we should offload the 392 trucks and then ADMARC should start afresh,” Kambawuwo explained.

Speaking after receiving the petition, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Joseph Chidanti Malunga said Parliament will engage the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Development to see to it that the matter is resolved.

“We have been talking about this issues, now that they have come to us we will take them serious and just today we will meet the Minister of Agriculture.”

Malunga said: “We wrote a letter to NFRA that they must publish all names of all the people who have ever sold maize to them.”