The Minister of Industry Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo, on Wednesday cancelled his scheduled meeting with stakeholders in the proposed Moringa value-chain after an unexpected huge crowd showed up for the exercise.

Adebayo disclosed that the cancellation became necessary as the venue was too small for the crowd and it was impossible to maintain the COVID-19 safety protocol of safe social distancing.

The meeting was convened to set up the Constitution Drafting Committee for a proposed National Moringa Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria to bring together all Moringa-related associations.

Announcing the decision to cancel the meeting, Deputy Director, Commodities, at the ministry, Mr Kaura Irimiya, said it did not envisage the kind of turnout it witnessed, otherwise a larger hall would have been arranged.

He said the minister sent in an observer to the meeting and asked that the meeting be cancelled due to non-compliance with Covid-19 protocols.

“We did not envisage the large turnout and because of COVID-19 safety protocols, none of us is safe here.

“The minister has sent some people to come and observe the meeting and they asked me to tell you that this meeting cannot continue.

“We are going to invite you later but we are going to do it by zonal representation,’’ Irimiya told attendees.

After the cancellation, the president of Eden Moringa Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society, Mr Michael Ashimashigha, said he was in support of safety reasons.

He said the Moringa association became necessary to examine what farmers were producing and to ensure that they were carried along.

“What happened here is that it got to a point that the meeting had to be postponed due to lack of coordination.

“We have people that have been invited from all over the country to set up a committee that will draft a constitution of the association.

“When you are drafting a Constitution of any association, you must have the stakeholders; those who have registered companies and registered associations.

“There will be those who have the product, not just middlemen or any kind of people picked from the streets,’’ he noted.