Afikpo North Local government Chairman, Hon. Ogbonnaya Oko Enyim, has shunned the visitation of the 2019 Agric loan disbursement committee set up by the State government to monitor the distribution of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) agric loan.
Enyim was billed to receive the committee chaired by the Ishielu local government chairman, Hon. Sunday Eze, on July 15, after the committee’s visit to Afikpo South local government area.
But when he was informed that the committee members were on their way to Afikpo North , Enyim told them to go and meet with his councillors because according to him he had other things to attend to.
But chairman of the committee maintained that the state did not release the money to the councillors and as such, the chairman was supposed to be on ground during the visitation for proper accounting.
The chairman however rescheduled the visit for July 24, but Enyim did not pick serveral calls made across to him by the secretary of the committee on the day of the visit.
The chairman also instructed the secretary of the committee to further liase with the chairman of Afikpo North so that a new date would be picked for the supervision.
But when Enyim was called on the telephone for the new date, it was gathered that he picked offence and even shouted at the secretary that he had told them to meet with the councillors for the verification but the committee refused.
This didn’t go down well with the Chairman of the committee who decided to visit other local governments until the Afikpo North Council boss accepts to receive them.
Then on July 25, it was gathered that Enyim sent a message to the secretary of the committee through the deputy leader of the council that his vice was waiting to receive the committee at the local government headquarters.
But the chairman of the committee maintained that Enyim was supposed to be available to receive the committee.
Meanwhile, The Voice gathered from a source in the area that Afikpo North local government chairman was alleged not to have judiciously disbursed the loan to farmers, which could be the reason he has been dodging to meet with the committee one on one, thereby sabotaging the effort of the state government in taking its agric policy down to the grassroot.
According to the source, about N40million may have been diverted to an individual purse.
It was gathered that while farmers in other local government areas were happy accessing the loan either by way of farm implement or cash, their colleagues in Afikpo North local government area, were being deprived of the state government’s agric intervention programme of his Excellency, Engr. David Nweze Umahi.
Speaking on the refusal of Enyim to receive the committee, chairman, Hon. Eze stated: “I kindly advised the council chairman of Afikpo North local government to receive the committee, but he refused. I don’t know what he is hiding. Out of the 13 local government chairmen, its only Afikpo North that have refused to see the committee and I don’t know his reasons. But I want to promise the committee members that we will do our report and submit to his Excellency.
“The committee has done well and I want to commend the newsmen for their assistance. like I told my colleagues, this is not a jamboree. Government set up the committee to make sure its agricultural policy gets to the grassroot as we supervise the disbursement as regards the 2019 agric loan . So if you are not serious with the committee it means you don’t like what the governor is doing.
“I also thank members of the committee, they have done very much as well as our colleagues who despite their busy schedules made time to give account of the disbursement as it concerns their different local government areas,” he stated
Recall that the state government recently rolled out the 2019 agric loan for rice farming in all the thirteen local government areas of the state.
Each ward is expected to get N5million loan which would be repaid next year.
