By Dwelleth Morountodun
The Director of Public Affairs, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr. Joel Oruche, has said the attention of the Ministry has been drawn to a publication in the media on the report by the House of Representatives committee on public account which stated that the sum of N18.9 billion was used for bush clearing during the COVID- 19 lockdown.
He said the Ministry wishes to state that if the statement emanated from the House Public Account Committee, the Committee must have been quoted out of context.
To put the record straight however, the Ministry at no time received any audit query to warrant summon by the Committee, Oruche, added.
He said: “It is also important to state that the Ministry did not spend N18.9B in bush clearing as reported. The Ministry only carried out Bush Clearing and Land Preparation of 3,200 hectares in 8 states of Osun, Ekiti, Edo, Cross River, Kaduna, Kwara, Plateau and Ogun States as allocated by respective State Governments at a total cost of N2.5 billion.
“In addition, other projects executed by the Ministry during the Covid – 19 period that sums up to the total sum quoted included the following:
“Construction of rural roads in the Six Geo- Political Zones of the Country ,Soil Sampling and Mapping, Farmers Registration as well as Rehabilitation and the Equipping of four National Soil Laboratories in Umudike ,Ibadan ,Kaduna and FCT Abuja.”
According to him, all these projects were successfully executed and verified by relevant government agencies and were part of stimulus package under the agriculture for food and jobs programme of the Federal Government to generate employment and grow the economy to mitigate the effect of Covid -19 Pandemic in 2020.
Signed: Dr. Joel O. Oruche
Director, Information (FMARD).
