Niger State Leads in Rice Production as Min. of Agric. plans to produce seven million tonnes of rice by 2018

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, says the Federal Government is targeting the production of seven million tonnes of rice by 2018.
Ogbeh told newsmen on Wednesday that the target, which would be achieved by the second quarter of 2018, was to meet the national consumption rate.
He said, “I think we have attained the level of being one of the largest producers of rice, even though many people are still in doubt about that.
“So, for those who say it is not true, I think they need to take another look.
“I have been in Vietnam, the same kind of rice plantation you see there is what you see in Nigeria.
“The only thing we need to add is the milling capacity, which we are increasing.”
The minister, however, attributed the current hike in the price of rice to the increase in the people’s demand for the produce.
Ogbeh said that the country was feeding more than 193 million citizens as well as 100 million others in West and North Africa.
He said, “Nobody argues the fact that trucks come in from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Niger Republic, Chad, Mali, to Funtua in Katsina to load our grains.”
On rice milling, the minister said that the Federal Government recently advertised no fewer than 100 rice mills for sale and distribution to farmers.
Ogbeh said that this would assist rice farmers to boost their production while reducing the price of the produce and boosting the food security of the country.
“Our milling capacity is still not up to speed but we want to improve.
“Some of the mills, which will mainly go to cooperatives, will do 10 tonnes a day, some 20 tonnes, some 50 tonnes and some 100 tonnes.
“The terms of sale and distribution of the mills to communities and farmers will be very generous,’’ he said.
Ogbeh said that the states that were currently producing rice included Niger, Adamawa, Kebbi, Kano, Ebonyi, Kastina, Jigawa, Taraba, Anambra, Enugu and Benue.


(NAN)

Buhari’s Lawyer confessed to have given N500,000 to Justice Ademola.

One of the lawyers who defended President Muhammadu Buhari in the suit challenging his qualification to seek election to the Office of the President, Mr. Kola Awodein (SAN), has described as ridiculous the allegation that the N500,000 he gave to Justice Adeniyi Ademola for his daughter’s wedding was a bribe from the president.

Reacting to news reports that he gave the judge, who is on trial before an Abuja High Court for corruption, the money at the behest of the president, Awodein said: “I am constrained to make in absolute good faith, in good conscience and in the interest of justice and fair play the following very short statement on account of the distorted news story currently being peddled as affecting the person of Mr. President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and my good and very noble self.”

Awodein’s reaction was issued on his behalf by the president’s media aide Mr. Femi Adesina yesterday in Abuja.
Awodein described the allegation as “malicious, utterly ridiculous, and revolting”.

The senior lawyer said that he had known Justice Ademola as a friend for well over 35 years.
This fact, he said, was well known to a majority of lawyers who have practiced, especially in Lagos, during the same period and also by many professionals of other disciplines and other prominent and not so prominent Nigerians.

He said: “It is a fact that the sum of money mentioned was personally paid by me as a friend to Mr. Justice Ademola as a personal gift, as our custom well recognises and demands on the occasion of his daughter’s high society wedding solemnised at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos, on the 9th of May 2015, which I attended in person.
“I was fully convinced then, as I remain today, that I could do no less as a friend of longstanding to fairly reasonably support him on that memorable occasion of his daughter’s wedding.

“Anyone and everyone who knows me would readily and unquestionably testify that I am and have always been a man of impeccable integrity on and off the courts and that such a record speaks always loudly for itself.
“I would conclude by stating categorically and without any equivocation that any link whatsoever with Mr. President, or any court case or cases, of my personal gift from my personal resources delivered to Justice Niyi Ademola by myself on that occasion, or any suggestion whatsoever that it was anything but a gift, or that it ever came from Mr. President, or at his instance, or that I was acting under any circumstances on his behalf, is most malicious, utterly ridiculous and in very, very poor and revolting taste and most undeserving of any further comments.”

Also weighing in on the issue, Adesina said Nigerians were aware that Buhari challenged the election results of 2003, 2007, and 2011 up to the Supreme Court, and not once was he accused of trying to compromise any judge, though some of them were his schoolmates or contemporaries at one time or the other.

He said this was in keeping with the president’s time-tested reputation as a man of truth and integrity.
“Any attempt to sully that reputation is bound to fail, inexorably,” he added.
Adesina said the statement by Awodein had shown that Buhari was in no way linked with Justice Ademola at all.
The prosecution witness in Justice Ademola’s trial had during cross-examination on Tuesday revealed that Awodein had given the judge N500,000 as a gift for his daughter’s wedding.

However, at the time the gift was given, Awodein was on the team of lawyers that represented the president in the defence of his suit challenging Buhari’s eligibility to contest the 2015 presidential election over his secondary school certificate.
By coincidence, the trial judge in the suit contesting the president’s eligibility was Justice Ademola.

24-hour curfew imposed on parts of Southern Kaduna

KADUNA, Nigeria : The government has imposed a 24-hour curfew on parts of central Nigeria, a government spokesman said on Tuesday, after clashes killed at least 14 in the region.
Conflict over grazing land and water, chiefly between semi-nomadic Muslim herders and Christian farmers, has piled pressure on authorities already facing an Islamist insurgency in its northeast and rebels in the oil-rich south.
Gunmen shot dead at least 14 villagers and destroyed property in an attack on the Kaura village of Takad in southern Kaduna state on Monday, said Enock Andong, a local community leader.
As a result of violence in Kaura and the Jema'a region, the state government imposed a 24-hour curfew on the two areas, Samuel Aruwan, a spokesman for the governor of Kaduna, said in a statement.
Kaduna - a flashpoint for north-south, Muslim-Christian frictions - has in recent months seen the worst violence since 800 people were killed in riots after elections in 2011.
Aruwan said a curfew "became necessary to protect life and property and avoid the further breakdown of law and order".
"Only essential workers and those on humanitarian services are allowed movement after due clearance by security agencies," he said.
The fighting over scarce resources comes at a particularly sensitive time for Kaduna city, which is about to become the main air hub in central and northern Nigeria, as the capital Abuja's airport closes for runway repairs in March.
The Kaduna state government said on Monday a garrison commander from the Nigerian Army's First Division had been sent to the southern region to coordinate a response to such attacks.




Source: [ Reuters ]