Kwara State Government has said that more than a cumulative sum of N5 billion of public funds and loans secured with the government as guarantor was sunk into the Shonga Farms agricultural project by past administrations, with no traces of any dividends to the people of the state.
It added that the state had been fraudulently negotiated into underwriting the debts incurred by the former administrations in the name of Shonga Farm.
Shonga Farm is a venture that was funded 100 per cent at inception with taxpayers’ money without any gain accruing to the people of the state under whatever guise.
The state government told reporters in Ilorin, the state capital, to explain the recent takeover of two Kwara properties by Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) owing to about N1.7 billion debts of the farm.
The news briefing was addressed by Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice Salman Jawondo (SAN); Commissioner for Communication Hon. Bode Towoju; Special Adviser to the Governor of Political Matters Lateef Alakawa; Special Adviser to the Governor of Political Communication Bashir Adigun; and Group Managing Director of Harmony Holdings Abdullahi AbdulMajeed.
The government said of the 13 autonomous farms set up with public funds, nine had been sold out with no kobo paid to the public coffers, even when the government is supposed to hold a paltry 10% equity in each of the farms.
It explained that the reason AMCON took over the Kwara properties in Abuja is to recover the bad loans that the Farm owes a consortium of banks that invested in it dating back to 2007 because the Shonga Farm Holdings could not pay back on the agreed timeline.