Allegations of fraud, extortion and other underhand practices are rocking the execution of an agricultural project facilitated by Edo State Government to reintegrate Libya returnees and consequently discourage irregular migration in the state. The returnees alleged that they were stopped from using the bank accounts they opened for that purpose and denied shares of what was sold from the farm. As a result, some of the returnees have had to abandon the project and return to the Sahara Desert in fresh attempt to go to Europe, INNOCENT DURU reports.
ESSY, a Libya returnee bubbled with joy when she was named among the ex-migrants the Edo State Government shortlisted for training in catfish farming and loan opportunity to start the business in 2019.
The announcement raised her hope as she repeatedly thought to herself that the greener pasture she had unsuccessfully gone to seek elsewhere might actually be here in Nigeria.
“The news of my consideration for the project excited me. I looked forward to becoming a successful farmer who would help in spreading the campaign against irregular migration by telling prospective irregular migrants that they could make it here at home instead of risking their lives in the desert and the turbulent sea,” she said.
Shortly before the training commenced, Tessy received a credit alert of N1million from Sterling Bank approved by the state government for the project. “Wow! Are you kidding me? This is unbelievable,” Tessy said to herself as her hope of becoming a celebrated catfish farmer received a big boost.
But few months after the project commenced, Tessy’s expectations started fading away. Along the line, she looked back and began to regret the day she was listed for the project.
“Before you ask me if I will go back, I am even looking for money, and any opportunity that comes my way now, I will leave,” she said angrily as she relived her frustration with the project.
“In this country, they will say they are helping you. But in the real sense, they are killing you.
“They should stop all this in the name of stopping people from embarking on irregular migration. They have a hidden agenda. They are encouraging nuisance.” Narrating how the project that renewed her hope of a better life in the country left an indelible sore in her heart, Tessy said: “We were trained in 2018 but started farming in 2019. At the initial stage, they told us that we would individually be empowered with N1 million, and that got everybody interested.
“Thereafter, they said it would be a loan and that it would be managed by the government. From the loan, they paid our trainers, paid for our feeding and other things for three months.
“The expenses were deducted from the N1 million loan they gave to us.
“They later established the fish farm. The first sales we made, it was the government officials that sold the fish and collected the money.
“All the while I did the business I didn’t get any profit. The government officials were the ones selling the fish for us.
“Each time they sold the fish, they would pay the money into our account but we couldn’t access it.
“That Sterling Bank account used to be my salary account when I was working in Lagos. The government officials are now the ones operating the account. I can’t pay in money or withdraw from it.
“One of the officials treated me like an outcast because I refused his love advances.”
Tessy noted that when the project was not going as planned, many of the participants lost interest and started giving up.
“Because I don’t like giving up on time, I sold all that I had to expand the business when they told us that those who wanted to expand could do so.
“I invested the money I got from selling my off my soft drink investment on the farm. I realised more than N500,000 from selling my valuables and invested it all in the farm.
“At a point, people started stealing my fish, feeds and other things on the farm. When I reported to the authorities, they said I should use whatever I had to fight those that were doing that.
“At a point, they said they would disqualify me from the farm because after they stole from my fish, I was no longer up to the cut off mark.”
Following the heartache and untold setback the project allegedly caused for her, Tessy called it quits.
She said: “I have left the farm. I am not doing anything. If I had known that this is what would happen to me, I wouldn’t have taken the risk, because right now, I am back to square one.
“All the time and money I invested in the farm was a total loss. I have three children. It’s by God’s grace we are surviving.
“I have a statement of my account showing how they withdrew over N700,000 from my account. How can you say you empowered someone and at the end of six months when you harvest, the person cannot boast of N5,000?
“You are not even entitled to take more than two or three fish. I am ready to work or travel out if I see an opportunity.”
Discussions about the project is one thing that Dogo, another returnee, hates investing his time on.
“I don’t want to remember that issue, because each time I remember the issue, it pisses me off and throws me off balance,” he said trying to dismiss our correspondent.
Prodded further, he said: “What happened on the farm was an eye sore. They did not allow us to access the funds.
“If I borrow money and you want to use my money to buy XYZ for me, you should allow me to know what you want to buy, the amount and we would probably go for a cheaper one that would give us the same result.
“Government officials were just spending our money anyhow. They would dig a borehole of N180,000 and tell you it is N500,000 and you would have no choice but to accept it.
“They dug the first set of five boreholes for N500,000 each. When I raised the alarm, heavy alarm, they now dug the next set of boreholes for N250,000 each.
“They claimed N75,000 for tarpaulin that cost N40,000. All these were from our monies. They didn’t even consult us before doing all those things. They wasted the money.”
The visibly angry returnee noted that the government officials took the whole money realised from the first set of fish he harvested.
He said: “The same thing happened when the second set was sold. On many occasions there would be no power supply to pump water. Many of us resorted to buying fuel to pump water whenever there was no power supply.
“From 50 people, they reduced our number to 18 along the line, saying that we were the only ones who qualified. They gave us 500 fish and some feeds instead of the 1,000 they gave us when we started.
“It sounded so stupid to me because I travel all the way from Upper to GRA. How can I be covering that distance to go and take care of 500 fish? I have just abandoned everything.”
More participants lament involvement in project
Dogo’s allegations were amplified by Mary, who equally regretted taking part in the project.
“I have never seen this kind of thing before in my life. You said you want to empower me and it is you who would go and buy everything that I need.
“Would anybody who has N1 million not know that he would use it well? Even if you want to buy things for me, at least you should allow me to follow you.
“At times, they treat us as if we are senseless. You can get a borehole sunk for N250,000 or N300,000 but there in the farm, they sank a borehole for over N700,000. My brother, they finished our money.”
Like other respondents before her, Mary said she had also left the farm. “How can I remain there when I have to use my money to clear grasses, pump water, and when your tarpaulin spoils, you would be the one to fix it. I was spending about N800 a day on transportation.
“I got an alert of N1 million while some others got over N900,000, but we couldn’t access the money. They used the money to empower themselves.
“At the end of six months, they said we were entitled to two fish without any money attached to it.
“They didn’t give us a dime after they sold what was harvested.
“I know one of us who has successfully gone back.”
The chairman of the returnee farmers body, Okosun, was equally unhappy with the manner the project turned out.
He said: “We started the farm in 2019. We cannot come from Libya and stay idle. The farm is about 10 acres.
“We only got bank alert but we didn’t see the money. The state government gave us a loan of over N900,000 each for the fish pond but we couldn’t access it.
“We went to the bank to collect ordinary ATM card but they didn’t give us. They said we have no access to the account.
“The government officials brought buyers of the harvest, but failed to give us anything from the money realised.”
The development, Okosun said, is discouraging them from farming. “We have registered our grievances. They said they would look into them but nothing has been done since then.”
Another participant, Lucky, has a slightly different story to tell. Unlike others who said they didn’t get any payment for their efforts, he said he got paid on two occasions.
Lucky said: “I joined the farm in 2019/2020. After we completed the training, I got N950,000 as loan, but I couldn’t access it. It was managed by government officials.
“They directed us to open the account. We couldn’t access the account after the loan was paid into it.
“They said it was so because some people may go and withdraw it. They restricted us from using the account.
“The government officials sold the first set of fish I harvested but I was there taking records. I made a profit of about N90,000 from the first harvest.
“After they took their interest and other monies that we needed to pay, I was given over N50,000. I was also given about N25,000 after the second batch was sold.
“There was no profit thereafter. We started recording losses. Even if there was profit, the interest and other monies would take it. The money they paid me was through the bank. They gave Sterling Bank directive to send it to my GTB account.”
Lucky said he was still in the business. But he regretted that participants were not allowed to make their choices. fish. The number of people remaining in the business are not more than 15 because some people could not make it. They didn’t give them free hand,” he said.
Project incapable of addressing irregular migration menace —Returnees
The returnees described the project as a gross failure and incapable of discouraging people from embarking on irregular migration.
“It is not a fruitful project to check irregular migration. A business that you do for six months or more and you cannot go home with ordinary N30,000, is that a good business? It was a complete waste of time.
The bank and the government officials just used us to enrich themselves,” Dogo said.
Some of their members who abandoned the project, according to him, have already embarked on fresh irregular migration.
“People are going everyday and more would still go. The campaign against irregular migration in the state is not working because the government is even making things worse for everybody.
“They are pushing everybody to the wall. The best thing is to go and risk your life. The chance of surviving is 10 per cent while the risk of dying is 90 per cent. Why not go there. If God is on your side, you will survive. People prefer to go and die there than to stay here. It is as bad as that. People want to go there and die. You hear them saying it.”
Speaking in the same vein, Okosun said: “People are still going back (to Libya through Sahara Desert).
If I have the opportunity, I will leave the country again. I spent two years in Libya and I knew how I suffered on the road. I would ordinarily not want to go back, but what they are doing to us now is discouraging.
“I have been encouraging my people not to go. But how can I continue to encourage people to come into farming when we are not seeing anything from what we are doing?
“Government should give us loan and allow us to manage it by ourselves.”
The aim of using the project to empower returnees and discourage irregular migration, according to Lucky, is not yielding results.
He said: “The money was supposed to be a grant and not a loan. The participants were supposed to use the money to do what they understand; not making everybody to venture into the same thing.
“Another problem was that most people were far from the farm. Some of the facilities are inadequate.”
Lack of a stable market, he added, was another challenge that affected the project.
“At the end of the day, you will just discover that you are labouring for nothing. That is the most discouraging part of it. It didn’t serve the purpose.
“We were about 50 that started the project, but about 35 people have left. The authorities are not saying anything about it.
“They are not seeing it the way the people who have left are seeing it. They are seeing it as if those people are not serious.
“For me, the system is not encouraging because the cost of things, especially the feeds, is so high.
“They didn’t manage our choices for us very well. They should have given us freedom and time. The loan was given at about nine per cent interest.”
Bank, govt have no right to deny individual access to own account —Unegbu
A former boss of Chattered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) Mazi Okechukwu Unegbu, has condemned allegations by the returnees that they were denied access to their bank accounts.
In a telephone chat with ourcorrespondent, Unegbu said: “It is very improper for the bank to allow other people to run somebody else’s account. It is very very wrong.
“And that is the problem with our government. They will start something good and later, they will start doing something else.
“Both the bank and the government are wrong. The bank would not allow somebody else to run an account that belongs to me. I will sue them.”
Sterling Bank, Edo govt react
The account officer who registered the returnees in a telephone interview with our correspondent confirmed there was restriction on the bank accounts opened by the returnees.
His words: “I don’t know what they came for. They just said they had a programme and that they needed an account. I am a marketer. I am a sales officer. My job is to open accounts for people. I did that and whatever happened between them is with the bank. The account restriction was an order from the government. That was what I heard.
Also speaking, Edo State Permanent Secretary, Agric, Aikhuomobhogbe Peter, who was the project manager at the time the project started, dismissed the returnees’ allegations. According to him: “Every programme has an operational modality. Under the Edo Agricultural Programme, beneficiaries are identified and once they are identified they open an account with the participating bank. Those accounts that are opened with the participating bank are supposed to receive funding for the enterprise. In this case, what was done was catfish. We normally hold a town hall meeting where the participants and the banks and the government will meet to discuss economics of production. This says that if you are going to buy a thousand fish, if it will cost N30 per fish. You multiply 30 by 1000 that will be N30, 000. If you are buying feeds, tarpaulin, borehole etc, all the costs will be stated.”
That, he said, is what they call `economics of production. “If at the end of the day you now have N500, 000 as the entire project cost, that is what will now be agreed as the entire project cost. We will now say these items will be procured from a vendor. In this case we prefer to procure from the manufacturers. If we are buying feeds for example we buy from Ollams. It is cheaper to buy from the manufacturers.”
Once the funds are released to the account of the beneficiary, he further said: “There is what we call a LIEN. It is placed on the account such that the beneficiary does not have access to withdraw the money without authorization. When we want to buy feed, if it is N10 per person, the money is pulled together and sent to Ollams for supply. Ollams supplies the feed based on the deductions that have been made in those accounts that subscribed to the project.
“Once it is supplied, everybody sees that it is supplied. The same thing is done to the next item. When they produce the enterprise that is assigned to them, an off taker comes in to buy and pays to the account of the beneficiary. If the beneficiary spends X to produce and he spends Y, at that level, X-Y gives you Z. Z is now given to the person as the profit. It is a simple process.”
He said the returnees that didn’t get any profit didn’t make profit. “Those who made profit got their money.”
On allegations of inflating the cost of sinking boreholes and procurement of other materials, he said: “The issue of boreholes has been settled a long time ago. There was nothing like that. That is a lie. That issue was settled a long time ago.”