A socio-political organisation, Bayelsa Integrated Farmers’ Union, has accused the Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, of lack of support to farmers in the state.
The group was reacting to a comment credited to the minister at the weekend when he called on Bayelsans to take to farming as a means of fighting hunger in view of the prevailing economic situation in the country.
The President of BIFU, Chief Tarila Beralati, in a statement issued on Monday in Yenagoa described the minister as a “monumental failure”, adding that his comments on farming was “uncharitable”.
Beralati stated that since Lokpobiri became minister, he had failed to come to the aid of farmers in the state either through loan or any other incentives to support agriculture in the state.
He compared the minister with his counterparts in other states and averred that he lacked the moral sanctity to tell Bayelsans to take to farming since he could not use his position to promote agriculture in the state.
“It is a shame that since the minister’s appointment close to two years ago, he has not deemed it fit to attract federal government agric loans to farmers in the state as his counterpart has done to farmers in his home state of Benue.
“So, why such hypocrisy on farming when as a minister he cannot assist his own people on the same matter”, he queried.
The group further lashed out at the minister for “failing woefully” to attend to the needs of the farmers in the state who, it claimed, had written to him on many occasions to support their efforts at getting fertilizer at subsidized rate like their counterparts in the north but to no avail.
Beralati, while calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack Lokpobiri and replace him with a more competent person from the state, argued that even in his own Ekeremor Local Government, the minister could not support farmers to engage in any meaningful agriculture practice.
“If the minister is serious, he would have collaborated with the state government on a number of key initiatives and investments in agriculture that will ensure food security and add great value to the national economy.
“Instead, he is busy playing politics with his office by teaming up with questionable characters like Lionel Jonathan, who is a serial defaulter of federal government agaric loans running into hundreds of millions.
“It is a shame that for a government that is well known for its anti-corruption campaign, it has not deemed it necessary to prosecute the likes of Lionel Jonathan for misappropriating federal government loans in the guise of agricprojects”, he stated.
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