From Abel Leonard, Lafia
Residents of Shabu community of Lafia, Nasarawa State Capital have protested the demolition of Seseme Processing Centre built by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the area.
The residents who spoke to newsmen on Sunday in Lafia, are calling on Governor Abdullahi Sule to immediately set up an investigative panel to unravel the reasons behind the demolition.
On receiving the report from a source, Daily Sun visited the project site in Shabu, a suburb of Lafia the Nasarawa State capital, some of the factory equipment including a giant electricity power generating set installed in the Sesame processing plant could be seen amidst the rubbles of the demolished building.
While a signboard bearing details of the contract description by Federal Government of Nigeria was conspicuously seen beside the demolished plant.
Al-Muhammad Ubabu, A traditional title holder (Makongijin Shabu) in the area, condemned the act, adding that, it has bring setback to the community and the state.
The traditional title holder however, lauded the federal government for bringing such a project to the community to help in value addition of the sesame produced in the state.
He said the project could have provided employment opportunity to youths, women and others thereby reducing crime and poverty.
He explained that when the project was demolished in March 2021, Mamud Bwala, traditional ruler of the area reported the matter to the governor.
“The governor on receipt of the report of the demolition by Sangari Shabu immediately sent a delegation who came and access the level of damage.
“Thereafter, the governor directed that the centre be reconstructed immediately, but after nine months, we are still waiting.
“The youths often times planned to revolt against the delay of the reconstruction, but the traditional ruler and other stakeholders always appeal to them to await government’s response,” he added.
Similarly, Mohammed Shaibu-Madaki, President, Shabu Youths Movement said it was really very sad for such a project capable of taken the youths off the street to be demolished.
He said that whenever they wanted to take any action, their leaders would appeal to them and assure that the government would rebuild the centre.
He said the traditional ruler assured them that the government promised to rebuild the centre, but wandered why nine months after nothing is being done.
He said they have shown maturity in handling the matter, but appealed to the state government to investigate the matter, punish those responsible and rebuild the centre for the overall development of the state.
Muhammed Shuaibu said ” We wanted to raise agitations and protest but the Emir and some state government officials led by Secretary to Nasarawa State Government who were at the site calmed us down.”
” The SSG in his words said this is a fight between Government and Government so we should leave it to them to sort it out. Since then, no efforts have been made to rebuild the plant.”
” I know the importance of a Sesame Seed factory in creating job opportunity. They can calm us down but we will not remained silent forever!”
Meanwhile, efforts to reach the Secretary to Nasarawa State Government, Alhaji Mohammed Ubandoma to comment on the matter was unsuccessful due to his failure to respond to calls and text messages sent to his telephone line.
On his part, Dr Ikechukwu Otomata, Nasarawa State Coordinator, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development confirmed to Daily Sun Correspondent in Lafia that the federal government through the ministry has decided to assist seseme farmers toward value addition before marketing given their recent ratting as first in the production of the product in Nigeria.
He explained that they received a distress call that Nasarawa State Urban Development Board (NUDB) demolished the project just a day after it was handed over to them by the contractor.
“The contractor completed his work and received certificate of completion on March 3, 2021 and the project was demolished on March 4.
“It was completed and equipped with state of the act processing facilities including electricity generating set to ensure adequate power supply.
“The facilities are still in the demolished structure, but when we wanted to move them to our office in Lafia, the traditional ruler assured us that the community would protect them,” he added.
He therefore said that the ministry was planing to handover the project to the state government before it was demolished by NUDB.
Daily Sun also visited the Nasarawa State Urban Development Board, the agency that was allegedly engaged to carry out the demolition of the Seseme Seed Processing Centre for their own side of the story, the Managing Director, Alhaji Yahaya Mohammed Wada confirmed the board’s participation in the action.
He stated that the federal government did not obtain approval from the board before embarking on the project.
Alhaji Wada however called on federal government agencies in the state to ensure stronger synergy with the state government to avoid unnecessary contradictions.
“The law that established the board clearly stated that before the clearing of site for any developmental, we must give approval,” Wada added.
However, Tension and agitations have continued to rise in Shabu, as youth are breeding and protesting the continued silent by the government to reconstruct the building and not prosecuting the people that perpetrated such dastardly act.