Yobe State governor, Mai Mala Buni has expressed worries over the ban on fertilizer supply to Northeast by law enforcement agencies.
Governor Buni’s outcry also came at a time when thousands of farmers who invested heavily in the farming season began to count losses due to the security action.
The governor, who spoke yesterday at a dialogue meeting with aggrieved “Keke” [tricycle] operators in Damaturu, advised them to be law abiding so as not to give chances to the security operatives to capitalise more on their unruly behavior.
Buni revealed that he was in Abuja last week where he met with security operatives on possible way to reopen some major markets that have been closed down for months, to improve the economy of people in the affected towns.
The state chairman, Northeast Commodity Association of Nigeria (NECAS), Hon. Nuhu Baba Hassan, said he was receiving intense pressure from farmers that registered under anchor borrower scheme.
“Some farmers are even accusing us of diverting the fertilizer elsewhere and sold. We have over 3 trailers load of fertilizer waiting for security clearance to Yobe. Once we got the clearance, all eligible owner will receive their shares”, he said.
Hassan revealed that any form of fertilizers, except liquid, have been banned to be transported into the northeast “So, we want people to know that it’s not only Yobe but, it affected other states in the northeast”.
Yunusa Mamman Sule, a civil servant in Damaturu, said he was encouraged by the anchor borrower intervention to go into large scale farming but the banned on fertilizer supply was affecting him seriously in his business.
“It’s a farmer’s belief that once government provide subsidy in fertilizer and insecticides, farming business will be easy and lucrative, but the situation today is depriving us of this advantage”, he said.
He called on president Muhammad Buhari order the security operatives to lift the ban, considering that Yobe is an agrarian state where 95 percent of its population depend on agriculture.
Another farmer, Ahmadu Ibrahim, said if urgent was not taken to address ban on the fertilizer supply, their investment in agriculture will be lost.
