UPDATED: Governor orders arrest of farmers’ group official for allegedly diverting federal agric inputs

The Governor of Jigawa State, Umar Namadi, has ordered the arrest of a local chairman of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) for allegedly diverting agricultural inputs provided for farmers by the federal government.

Mr Namadi gave the order during an unscheduled visit to the inputs distribution centres of the federal government’s National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro Pocket Programme.

On Saturday, the governor caught officials engaged in racketeering at centres in Birnin Kudu and Kiyawa local government areas.

The governor found farmers denied allocation, and some targeted beneficiaries stranded in the inputs distribution centres.

The beneficiaries protested to the governor that the inputs had been sold to traders.

In Kiyawa Local Government Area, Mr Namadi ordered the arrest of the AFAN chairman for allegedly inflating the price of the inputs.

The governor vowed to take stringent measures to check round-tripping by agro-dealers and their agents.

Mr Namadi told reporters that agro-dealers failure to fulfil their responsibilities has made it difficult for farmers to access the inputs they need to begin planting their crops.

He lamented that farmers were being swindled due to irregularities in the distribution process. In several centres, Mr Namadi said he found agro dealers selling subsidised inputs intended for farmers to marketers while denying the intended recipients their rightful allocations.

“We have a serious issue. We started this exercise for the last five days. Already one-third of the period has gone and agro-dealers have not shown up. That means it will be difficult for the farmers to get this input to go to the farm, and that means sabotaging the whole exercise.

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“It is a sabotage of the effort of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and at the same time a sabotage of the effort of the President. And we will not allow that to happen. So we will do our best, and whoever collects more than is expected must refund this money back to the owners. And that is what we are on.

“Whoever refuses to do that, we will arrest him, then let his master agro-dealer come and bail him out and refund our money. But definitely, the money collected from our people, which is collected illegally, must be refunded. And we will not allow anybody to sabotage this programme, whoever he is,” the governor said.

The governor said while the farmers were required to pay ₦159,187 for their inputs, with a 50 per cent subsidy paid by the federal government, some “unscrupulous individuals” imposed additional charges of ₦5,000 to ₦10,000.

Governor Namadi urged the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to urgently address the situation by replacing corrupt agro-dealers. He said the racketeering activities could jeopardise his state’s wheat farming goals and the federal scheme nationwide.

The governor visited input distribution centres in Birnin Kudu, Kiyawa, Jahun, Miga, and Kafin-Hausa local government areas.