Poultry association rebuts claims of N2.8bn misappropriation

The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) has refuted the rumour making rounds that Buhari’s administration misappropriated the sum of N2.8 billion earmarked for compensation to poultry farmers who lost their investments due to bird flu.

Director General of PAN Dr Anallo Akpa stated this at the ongoing Agriculture Summit organized by Agriculture Correspondents Association of Nigeria (ACAN) in Abuja.

He said that while in Kaduna recently for a stakeholder meeting, he came across a paper prepared by a body called Get Nigeria Working Again (GNWA) alleging that there was a bird flu scam of N2.8 billion by the Buhari’s Administration.

“As a representative of farmers, I want to dispel that. In the past three or four years, we had the outbreaks of avian influenza. Once that was confirmed, the government would go to the farms affected, depopulate the birds and then they will pay compensation and there are procedures to do it.”

“Before this government came to be, there was an outbreak. The last regime under Dr Akinwumi Adesina (Nigerian former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and currently, President of the African Development Bank) paid compensation of over N500 million to some of the farmers affected in the outbreaks leaving a carryover of over 80 per cent of the affected farmers uncompensated. In the last three years we have taken these cries of the farmers to the government, and early this year about N1.825 billion was paid to farmers affected in the outbreak of avian influenza,” Dr Akpa stated.