.Says, agric loan is a mirage
By Valentine Amanze
The Chief Executive Officer of Umuezerugo Royal Agro Tradings Limited, Prince Diamond Ojonugwa, has appealed to the Nigerian government and the public to find a lasting solution to the killings, destruction of farms and properties in Benue State and other parts of the country by the armed herdsmen.
Ojonugwa, whose company is headquartered in Makurdi, also lamented the level of destruction of his farms and other people’s means of livelihood by the invaders.
He said that the attack on the eve of the New Year, which claimed the life of 73 people, has consequently caused food shortage in the country.
Besides, he said that most of the farmlands destroyed by the herdsmen were owned by commercial farmers, who borrowed money from the banks and individuals to boost their agric business.
Ojonugwa, who described the activities of the herdsmen as destructive and complicated, said that they required genuine investigation to identify clearly whom they are, as his company lost more than N120 million to the incedent.
“The questions is, are they truly herdsmen or impersonators or foreigners as the Federal Government and the other top government officials named them? Or who are these terrorist group? The damages and continual threat to life by this terrorist group is worth investigating if there are no political foul play underground,” he said.
On his company’s loss to the herdsmen attack, Ojonugwa said, “We are deeply and terribly affected: We have farms in four different locations in Benue State and we buy produce in all the communities in the state. For the year 2017 farming, we lost all our rice farms and other investments to the horrible Fulani herdsmen. 70% of our businesses including the Umuezerugo Royal Farms spread across Benue State, many of our staff lost their houses from the attack at Wadata Area in Markudi, Benue State and some of our staff returned back to their villages at the moment.
“We lost so many of our purchasing agencies in the New year killing and so much more.”
He however lamented that the situation was still bad for farmers in Benue State because of their loss and heavy indebtedness.
On loans the Federal Government promisd to farmers, he said that it was a mirage, stressing that they did not get the money but received bank alert on it.
He explained that the banks never allowed them access to the loan till today.
“In 2016, I was directly involved in the 2016 CBN anchored borrowers and the drama was not funny. After all due process was observed, fund was disbursed into the farmers’ account; they all got the alert but were not allowed to access the fund. I made every attempt to get the reason from the commercial bank officials and there was no genuine excuse or reason. I called and sent emails to the head office of the commercial bank after so many postings till August on the fund that was supposed to be released in March. I was told that the bank said that the farmers did not meet up the CBN requirement for the fund and then I asked why did they credit our account in the first place, there was no answer to my question. At last the money was withdrawn from the account without the signature or awareness of the farmers,” he said.
