The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Bauchi State

  • N1b for Bauchi farmers

    N1b for Bauchi farmers

    Farmers in Bauchi State are to get a N1billion loan from the Federal Government to boost their farm input this year.

    The state House of Assembly, Committee on Agriculture Chairman Abdulkadir Ahmed Wahu yesterday expressed confidence that farmers in the state will experience good farming season.

    He noted: “By the grace of God, and the utility of the loan, if we don’t have flood this year, almost every farmer will be happy with what they planted as the harvest will be good’’.

    Giving the break-down of the loan, Wahu said N600 million will spent on for the purchase of fertiliser and N200 million for the purchase of ingredients to blend the fertiliser by the state government owned Fertiliser Blending Company.

    He added: ‘’And a balance of N200million would be used by Bauchi Agricultural Supply Company to procure chemicals, insecticides, farm implements and other allied agricultural input, and repair the grounded tractors will be used by the farmers.”

    He explained that the fertiliser needs of farmers in the state in the cropping season are to be met by the Bauchi Fertiliser Blending Company, adding: ‘’These efforts will be complemented by the Federal Government under its E–Wallet system of fertiliser sale.”

    According to him, not less than two million farmers are expected to be registered under the E-Wallet system of fertiliser sale, as over 300,000 have already been registered at the beginning of the programme.

    He noted that Bauchi State has a very high number of registered farmers under the E-Wallet system, and it is also the highest collector of registration forms among 36 states.

    He attributed the high increase of farmers to the population growth of over 7 million from the 4.6 million people based on 2006 census to the influx of people from Plateau, Borno Yobe, Adamawa and Taraba states to insecurity in these states, saying the influx is a good omen to increase in agricultural produce.

  • Friends of slain corps member seek justice

    Friends of the late Ikechukwu Ukeoma, a member of the NYSC, who lost his life in the post-election violence in Bauchi State in 2011, on Thursday gathered to remember him.

    The deceased was among 10 NYSC members who died in the post-election violence in the northern part of the country.

    Pastor Ikechukwu Onwurah, who addressed newsmen on behalf of the friends, said that they organised a press conference as a second year memorial for the deceased.

    Onwurah said that the conference was also a forum to highlight some ills still prevalent in the country and called for action to prevent such circumstances in which the corps members died.

    He said that friends and family members of the deceased were sad that nobody had been brought to justice two years after the incidents.

    He called for justice, adding that the incident should be used as a springboard for change and transformation, to ensure that their death was not in vain.

    The pastor reminded the Bauchi and Federal Governments that they had yet to keep some promises they had made the families of the deceased corps members.

    He noted that the promises to give employment to one sibling of each deceased, immortalize the slain corps members and also bring those involved in their killing to book, have yet to be fulfilled.

    `No amount of compensation can bring back the dead; all we seek is justice and succour for the families of the deceased,’’ he said.

    Also speaking, Miss Omowunmi Adeniyi, a survivor of the incident, amid tears, described the incident as a nightmare that would forever remain in her memory and appealed that all the unfulfilled promises should be keptMr Ayodele Deidi, the father of one of the deceased corps members, said that life had become very difficult for him since the incident..

    He urged the Federal Government to ensure that justice was done to prevent a recurrence of such an incident.