Kogi State Governor Idris Wada have been berated for condoning corruption in his government. In a petition to the Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Momoh-Jimoh Lawal, the staff of the state accelerated rice production project informed him of the monumental extortion and corruption ongoing at the project spearheaded by the coordinator of the project, Chief A. K. Mohammed, who also doubles as the Chairman of Osigwe Food and Agro Industries Lagos.
Chief AK Mohammed and his company is the sole importer of machinery on the farm and this is done without due procurement processes.
The petition also highlighted issues like illegal staff salary deductions, victimization, illegal withdrawal of funds through the aid of the Managing Director of Kogi ADP, Prof Dominic Akpa.
They called on the Governor to act and bring this persons to justice.
The petition as submitted to Speaker, Kogi State House of Assembly:
15th August 2013
The Honourable Speaker
Rt. Hon Ibrahim Jimoh
Kogi State House of Assembly,
Lokoja.
Sir,
CHIEF A.K MOHAMMED: SAVE OUR SOULS
We wish to bring to your notice the true state of affairs at the Kogi state Accelerated Rice production programme. As you are aware, His Excellency Captain Idris Wada, the Governor of Kogi State kick started his administration with a paramount desire of boosting food production in Kogi State. Under this sector, the State Government Keyed into the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government by establishing the Kogi State Accelerated Rice Production Project.
In 2013, the project kick started on a sound note and recorded an optimal production capacity that catapulted the state as the number one rice producing state in the country.
In 2014 planting season, the State Government decided to recruit permanent staff to manage the affairs of the project. The Kogi State Agricultural Development Project and Chief A K Mohammed supervised the exercise and some of us (Kogites) were recruited into the state civil service. This gesture alone afforded us the opportunity to contribute our own quota to the development of our state.
However, the dream of sustaining this feat have been a mirage as the leadership competence of Chief A K Mohammed have come to serious scrutiny. You may not be familiar with the said Chief A K Mohammed; he is a friend and former boss of His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Kogi State. They have been friends for decades and business associates particularly in the aviation sector of the Nigerian economy.
The graduates recruited are the ones running the affairs of their respective farms with their salaries. A graduate is paid N50,000 per month and he/she spends all of it to manage two hectares of farms and at harvest it all goes to government. The management ranges from weeding, clearing, bird scaring and harvesting. All staff on the farm don’t have their salaries as at when due. Upon inquiries from the office of the accountant General, we were told that our cheque goes to Kogi ADP first, which is totally wrong. On further inquiries at ADP, we were told that Chief A K Mohammed requested for our vouchers (an official secret document)to be brought to him to pave way for illegal deductions of staff salaries. In the month of July, a petition was written to His Excellency on this matter and we believe he is working on it too. However, Chief A K Mohammed came to the farm and told us our state is full of miscreants and bastards, that even the Governor of Kogi state can do nothing to him. He boasted that our state lack the requisite capability to undo whatever he says as the Governor has given him the mandate to deduct salaries of staff on the farm to run the affairs of the project.
Mr Speaker sir, as we write this letter, we wish to state here too that what the graduates have achieved within this short time is highly commendable and on this note, we do not deserve to be treated by a man who is not even a Kogite and who takes pride in insulting even our parents.
We request that you set up your own committee to verify all that we have said here from the office of the Accountant General, the Kogi ADP, the Farm project and the host communities.
Other illegal activities of Chief A K Mohammed that need to be investigated include him and his company being the sole importer of all the machines ranging from tractors, transplanters, harvesters, planters and a host of other machinery for the farm use without recourse to laid down procedures and proper procurement processes. He is running the farm as a private company and from all we are seeing, we may end up as slaves in his hands. Unemployment is eating deep and he has successfully used this as a leverage to threaten our compliance. Our situation is even worsen to the extent that even our direct employers (Kogi ADP) are watching helplessly because they are all scared of losing their jobs. The Former Managing Director, Dr Onoja lost his job because he dared to tell Chief A K Mohammed the truth about the true state of the farm. He bluntly told him I will tell your Governor to remove you and this was done immediately. For this reason, everybody cannot dare say anything and the boat keep sinking in the hands of an Aeronautic Engineer who doesn’t know anything about Agricultural production.
Furthermore, Mr Speaker, we wish to also bring to the notice of the honourable house that in the last one month, the sum of N13,000,000 (Thirteen Million Naira) was paid to Chief A K Mohammed through the Kogi Agricultural Development Project office as his fee for consultancy. He also collected the sum of over N58,000,000 (Fifty Eight Million Naira) for the procurement and importation of farm implements.
Now Mr Speaker, this will shock you more; Chief A K Mohammed receives One Million Naira weekly for the operation cost of the farm but in the event the money doesn’t come, he uses funds deducted from staff salary to run the farm on the guise that all graduates salaries deducted will be returned to them for farm activities. And this continues until the Government subvention comes and when it comes, it goes directly into his pocket. He is feeding fat on our resources and we are helplessly watching.
Mr Speaker, it is also worthy to note that Chief A K Mohammed is the Chairman of Osigwe Food and Agro Industries LTD. The company liquidated some years ago and even the Central Bank of Nigeria Published the company as one of the debt ridden organisations that took loans from various banks to the tune of over N900,000,000 (Nine Hundred Million Naira)
At his coming in 2012, the project funds were clearly and brazenly siphoned without proper accounting and this gave his company a new lease of life. As we speak, Osigwe Food and Agro Industries is back to business courtesy of funds stolen from Kogi taxpayers.
Finally Mr Speaker sir, we are Kogites and its so painful that we have lost our command in rice production in the country to other states. Only recently Mr President commissioned the biggest Rice processing plant in west Africa at Nassarawa State. Alhaji Aliko Dangote also doled out Billions of Naira to some states to boost rice production but Kogi was not in his list. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture have also severed relationship with Kogi State on rice production because the program could not stand the test of time under Chief A K Mohammed and our Governor that we all elected is just watching. We beg you and your Honourable colleagues to intervene as a matter of urgent public attention to save us from a colossal chain of corruption that have engulfed the project.
Let Chief A K Mohammed leave our state alone. A state he condemns but enjoy stealing its resources for his private businesses.
Thank you honourable members, as we await your further action!!
All Staff of KARPP
Lokoja.
Cc: His Excellency Capt. Idris Wada
Governor of Kogi State.
His Excellency Arch. Yomi Awoniyi
Deputy Governor of Kogi State.
All Honourable Members KGHA, Lokoja.
The MD, Kogi ADP, Lokoja.
The Kogi State Head of Service, Lokoja.
The State Commissioner of Agriculture, Lokoja.
VOTER EDUCATION PROJECT
154 Days to 2015 General Elections: Lessons From The Past
Join other patriotic Kogi Indigenes as we Share past experiences of Electoral Malpractices to improve our electoral processes and ensure free and fair elections in Kogi State.
All experience shared will be compiled and made available for general public.
To share your past experience(s), contact us:
Email: kogireports@yahoo.com
BBM: 3312850C
Whatsapp: +2347064346175
SMS: +2347064346175
