A young farmer named Bello Zabarmawa has refuted the claims of Governor Dapo Abiodun and asserted that he is the owner of the 200-hectare rice plantation contrary to claims that the project was funded by Mr Abiodun’s administration with support from World Bank. 

Last month, Mr Abiodun and his entourage including a crew of photographers and videographers, visited the rice plantation in Magboro in the Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of the state. 

The governor posed for pictures holding the harvested rice grains while his media team parroted claims that Ogun has joined states such as Lagos and Bayelsa to grow local rice, raising expectations among residents for rice to be available at affordable prices..

But Mr Zabarmawa, a special adviser to Kebbi State Governor, debunked the claim saying the rice farm was his project, according to PM News. 

Mr Zabarmawa was notified of the rice plantation-friendly soil in Magboro after one of his associates, Haruna, visited the village in 2019.

Mr Zabarmawa arranged to disburse an interest-free loan to about 200 farmers to plant rice on one hectare.

Given it was an untilled ground, he hired bulldozers and other farming equipment to clear the land and prepare it for planting season.

But given it was an enormous expanse of the land and project that community members including the village monarch welcomed with joy, Mr Zabarmawa was encouraged to seek the government’s assistance.

He paid N6 million to secure 220 hectares on lease and registered it with the “Young Service Grow” using “Alubarika Farms,” PM News quoted Mr Zabarmawa as saying.

He admitted that the Ogun State government supported the project by paying 50 per cent of the cost of clearing the ground and supplying fertilisers.

“When I started, the Ogun State Government promised and paid 50 per cent of the clearing cost why I paid the balance,” Mr Zabarmawa told PM News. “That time I was buying a bag of fertiliser for N45,000, I paid N23,000, and the government paid the remaining N22,000.”

According to Mr Zabarmawa, when the rice was ready for harvest, Ogun State governor visited the farm to inaugurate it, noting that his promises since then have gone unfulfilled

“There was a time I wanted to harvest, the governor himself came here. The commissioner has been here twice. It was the governor who flagged off the harvest. I was very happy that day,” Mr Zabarmawa disclosed. “But, I still need government support.”

The farmer lamented the high cost of running the rice plantation where he spends a minimum of N400,000 daily on labourers’ wages.

“I spend money to clear the land. I have a plan to clear 1,000 hectares. I’m calling for government support. I’ve brought in three bulldozers now. I’m the only one paying for now. I paid N600,000 to bring the bulldozers to the farm and I pay N400,000 labour on each of them every day.” Mr Zabarmawa bewailed.

The farmer said he gave out loans between N4 million and N6 million to about 60 farmers and solicited support from the government “so that we can meaningfully engage our youths who don’t have work to do.”

The farmer asserted that those he empowered “have become millionaires.”

Another farmer who was present at the store where Mr Zabarmawa purchased solar panels for the farm, informed the newspaper that the government only paid 35 per cent of the energy bill leaving Mr Zabarmawa to bear the larger financial burden.

Similarly, Yusuf Sulaiman, Secretary of the Albarika rice farmers, affirmed that Mr Zabarmawa was the one bankrolling the farmers and footing the bills. 

A bureau de change operator turned farmer, Abu Garba, said he was a beneficiary of Mr Zabarmawa’s benevolence, stressing that he received a N5 million loan to start rice farming in Magboro and was able to harvest 500 bags of rice.

Mr Abiodun’s statement while inaugurating the harvest implied that the rice farm was solely the project of the Ogun State government with support from the World Bank.

“In this place, I have 12,500 hectares of land, and all we have farmed is 200 hectares that yielded N1 billion for 200 farmers. From here, I can feed the rest of the country. We will scale up this project immediately from 200 to 2,000 hectares and generate N30 billion in revenue,” Mr Abiodun said. 

“This brings us closer to making Ogun State the food basket of the nation,” the governor said without mentioning Mr Zabarmawa with whom the state shared the fertiliser and clearing cost.

The governor’s aide, Abiodun Talabi, was not available for comments to clarify or debunk Mr Zabarmawa’s ownership claim to the rice farm.