Ogbeh Under Pressure To Inaugurate Agric Boards
The Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogheb, is under pressure to inaugurate the Boards of four parastatals under his ministry which were left out when other Boards in the ministry were inaugurated in March.
The pressure comes as nominees for the Institute of Agric and Research, Zaria; NAPRI, Zaria; Institute of Agric, Research and Training, Ibadan and National Agricultural Extension Research Liaison Services, Zaria (NAERLS) lamented that they had been left in the cold several months after they should have been inaugurated.
Dr Leke Pitan is said to be the chairman-nominee of NAERLS and the Board has 13 members.
“On the day the four Boards were left out, we were told that since they are educational institutions, they should be headed by professors. That was March 9, 2018. Now, four months after, we don’t know what is happening. Professors are not that scarce in the country to take more than four months to look for only four to head the Boards.
‘I think there is something that the Minister and his staff are not telling us over the non-inauguration of these Boards”, one of the nominees said at the weekend.
“Some of us have been faced with questions by friends, relatives and party members about what has become of one federal appointments, insinuating that we may have been scammed.
“We are facing a huge embarrassment and only Chief Audu Ogbeh can tell us what is happening.”
The nominees solicited the intervention of the Presidency and the ruling APC leadership in resolving issues connected to the non-inauguration of the Boards, saying the party leadership particularly should wade in because the interest of its member was at stake in the matter.
