Bayelsa community accuses Buhari’s minister of fronting ex-militant to corner FG’s multi-billion naira rice farm

The Peremabiri Development Association (PDA) in Bayelsa State has alleged that a serving minister in the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari is using an ex-militant leader in an attempt to corner a federal government-owned rice farm worth billions of naira.

The community represented by the group, described as false, a claim by a notorious ex-militant leader, Eris Paul also known as Ogunboss that he is cultivating a huge rice farm in the community.

The false claims according to the group is coming on the heels of‎ incessant nefarious activities being perpetrated by the ex-militant who has become a nightmare to his own kinsmen.

The PDA in a statement by its chairman, Chief Awolowo Wasiri and secretary, Chief Profit Enoch, said the rice farm belongs to the Federal Government and not Ogunboss.

They claimed that Ogunboss is working in consonant ‎with the junior Minister of State with an aim to use the rice farm to deceive President Buhari to release huge sums of money to support the project with the aim of diverting the money.

They said they gathered from a very reliable source, that the diverted money which runs into billions of naira will enable the minister pursue his governorship ambition and enable Ogunboss stockpile arms ahead of the governorship election.

Read also: HERDSMEN KILLINGS: CAN to Buhari, stop playing politics, take action

They also alleged that both men have entered into a strong secret agreement for Ogunboss to emerge as the chairman of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area in the forthcoming local council election with the calculation that his emergence will help pave the way for the minister’s governorship ambition since the LGA commands the highest voting population in Bayelsa.

The PDA therefore appealed to the Bayelsa State Government to do everything within its power to get Ogunboss arrested for all his alleged atrocities, which include the wanton killings of innocent citizens of Premabibiri whom they said unfortunately, have become slaves in their own land.

Also, they want President Buhari to stop shielding and protecting well known criminals and their sponsors in the name of politics‎ and urged him to wield the big stick against the minister, for allegedly sponsoring criminals to destabilize the state.

“Ogunboss has been going about laying claim to the Peremabiri Rice Farm. This is very shocking and annoying. The farm belongs to the Federal Government. So we call on the general public not to be deceived by th‎at false claim.

“We are aware that Ogunboss is backed by (the minister) who since he became a minister has worked more for the destabilization ‎of our community and Bayelsa as a whole. He has not attracted a single project to the state yet he wants to become governor, using that dare devil as his hatchet man”, part of the statement read.

Meanwhile, in another development, the Association of Concerned Bayelsa Professionals (ACBP) has called on President Buhari to direct the security agencies to investigate the allegation by the Bayelsa State Governor, Henry Seriake Dickson, that some politicians in the All Progressive Congress (APC) were arming militants to destabilize the state.

The Governor had specifically accused the leader of the APC in Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Silva and the Minister of State for Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri, as being among those sponsoring violence in the State.

The National Secretary of the ACBP, Dr. Jasper Oborotobou, in a statement on Monday, urged the President to prevail on the various security agencies to carry out holistic investigations into the grave allegations raised by the governor.

He said that the issues raised by the governor had to do with the lives of the Bayelsa youth and indeed the wellbeing of the state and shouldn’t be treated with levity.

According to him, the ACBP could not afford to be neutral in the emergent sensitive security matter raised by the governor because of its implication on the state

Oborotobou who also called on security agencies to commence immediate investigation into the allegation and if necessary prosecute the culprits, said that only such an action would sustain the confidence reposed in the security agencies by the citizens.

 

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