Adamawa State House of Assembly has chided the state government over its handling of the N2 billion agricultural loan it received from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on behalf of the states’ farmers, and has directed it to refund the money to the state coffers, because the loan was diverted for other uses.
The house resolved, during its plenary sitting on Monday, after the house had received the report of an ad-hoc committee, chaired by Aminu Iya Abbas (Uba Gaya constituency) constituted to investigate a petition by farmers in the state, to the effect that they did not benefit from the said loan granted by the apex bank.
It also recommended the intervention of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) by ensuring that the said money was repatriated to the state government’s coffers, should the executive arm of government fail to heed to its call.
The lawmakers noted that although the sum of N2 billion was collected for Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS) from the CBN into the account of Adamawa State government in Zenith Bank on
March 2, 2015, no dime was disbursed to the intended beneficiaries.
“There are 28 registered farmers’ cooperative societies/unions in the state, and they requested for the sum of N1,243,919,000, out of the N2 billion, neither the registered farmers, cooperative societies/unions were given any amount from the said N2 billion, nor were any sum utilized for other areas of agricultural development in the state, as enshrined for (CACS),” the report noted.
However, the House also summoned the Accountant General of Adamawa State to appear before it today to explain allegations of diversion of pension funds to offset the severance package of lawmakers loyal to the state government.
Source: spyghana
