Nigeria Content Online

About 169 bags of
fertilizer earlier declared missing by the Edo State Ministry of
Agriculture and Natural Resources have been recovered. This was
revealed in the handover notes by the former Commissioner for
Agriculture, Tunde Lakoju, who quit the state’s cabinet last week.

The fertilizer,
which was sent from Abuja last year and stored in the ministry’s
warehouse, was designated for distribution to farmers to boost food
production in the state.

The fertilizer was
declared missing earlier in the month and according to Mr. Lakoju’s
letter, “competent sources said that the stolen fertilizer was
allegedly diverted by officials of the warehouse and taken to the open
market and sold at N602,350.00.”

The letter further
revealed that interrogation of the warehouse officials revealed that a
retired storekeeper simply identified as Mr. Usiomoifo was responsible
for the missing bags of fertilizer. Mr. Usiomoifo was said to have
denied any knowledge of the fertilizer which went missing while he was
on duty. The ministry then decided to deduct the financial worth of the
fertilizer from the gratuity due Mr. Usiomoifo. The letter did not
indicate whether the accused would be prosecuted.

Commenting on why
this revelation was just coming out, Peter Okhiria, the chief press
secretary to the state governor said: “The reason why the commissioner
left the information till he resigned from the government was best
known to him.”

Meanwhile, the Edo State government may only be able to pay for
about 8,000 metric tons or about 140 trucks of assorted fertilizer, out
of the 12,600 metric tons or 420 trucks allocated to it by the federal
government for the current farming season. Government sources confirmed
that the dwindling financial resources of the state might be
responsible for the shortfall. This, they alleged, has also affected
its capacity to access the N1billion agricultural loan which it
announced it was taking in 2010 to improve food production.