The Liberian Leader toured few of the warehouses, including those belonging to Supply West Africa Trading (SWAT), KK and Foauni and United Commodity Incorporated (UCI) and vented his consternation about arbitrary increment of the price of rice in the country.

Addressing Reporters during the tour, President Weah said it was wrong for anyone to treat the rice issue politically because the country is not in an electioneering period, stressing, "we will not tolerate anything that stalls and undermines the rice market."





 

The President also warned against increasing the price of rice on the market contrary to the government's approved price of $13.00, emphasizing "the price must be the price."





 

"Rice is our staple food, and we will not tolerate people selling it at an exorbitant price," the President warned.



 

The Liberian Chief Executive indicated that though business people are in the constant habit of profiteering, he assured the Liberian public that the government will increase its monitoring mechanism to deter would-be violators.



 

"We will enforce the law to ensure that we deter those trying to blow up the price," President Weah stated.



 

President Weah also chided the media for what he called "providing misinformation to the public on the rice situation."



 

"I came here to verify the reported rice shortage as reported by some journalists. What I see here, the stockpile of rice, is contrary to what is reported to the citizens," he said.



 

"You are giving misinformation to the citizens, and this is your country too," he asserted. "If anything happens, all of us will be vulnerable. So it's wrong when the press is giving misinformation."

 

President Weah said it would have been important had the media "gone to the Freeport of Monrovia to inquire from the importers rather than reporting that there's shortage of rice, whereby there is plenty of rice here".



 

The President described as unacceptable any attempt for people to create artificial shortages in order to sabotage the country.



 

This is the second time President Weah took time off to visit warehouses of rice importers amid reported rice shortage on the market.