Agbekoya appeals to govt for agric loan

The South-West frontline farmers group, Agbekoya Farmers Association, has called on government at all levels to immediately start the implementation of agric transformation agenda by giving out funds to farmers in order to produce more food for Nigerians.The group also urged President Goodluck Jonathan to listen to the voice of the people on the removal of fuel subsidy in the country.The call was contained in a release signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the association, Chief Olatunji Bamidele, after an emergency meeting of its National Executive Committee.According to the release, the President General of Agbekoya (Worldwide), Chief Kamorudeen Aremu Okikiola called on President Jonathan that the removal of fuel subsidy should be a gradual process or done in phases after the government must have put in place some palliative measures that will cushion the effect of the removal.'Agbekoya's position is that government should tackle corruption in NNPC and work seriously to stop importation of fuel because importation of fuel broughtabout fuel subsidy regime. Government must also fix our refineries and lease them out to private companies to manage effectively.'Agbekoya is against the setting up of a committee to manage the savings from fuel subsidy removal, adding that an example was the establishment of P.T.F. which was a monumental waste' said the group.The Agbekoya lamented that majority of the people were hungry and angry because the prices of food items had skyrocketed five folds since the announcement of the removal of subsidy.It said, ' A bag of rice, now costs N12,000, a bag of gari N9,000, among others.'We are appealing to Federal and State Governments to provide funds to Agbekoya Farmers Association and other farmers groups in the country.'Agbekoya is unrelenting at restoring Nigeria's Agricultural dignity and anything that will affect food security, Agbekoya is ready to tackle it'.According to Okikiola, the first point of security in life is food security, imploring the Federal Government to lead by example.The group further said, ' For instance government should be able to peg the salaries of elected and political office holders, because the idea of spending eighty percent of our annual budget on recurrent expenditure is highly unacceptable'.Agbekoya suggested that it is high time government pegged the minimum and maximum wages of elected and political office holders, adding that a lot of money was being expended on the salaries and allowances at the expense of the public interest.
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