Fayemi who spoke to journalist in Ikare-Ekiti said Fayose’s poultry project which gulped more than a billion naira also did not have a sustainability plan, adding that it was not equipped contrary to claim by the former governor.
He stressed that his administration has put in place a processing plant in Ado- Ekiti for farmers under the Youth in Commercial Agriculture Development (YCAD) with less than N20 million while the Fayose-led government merely paid lip service to the people of the State having expended a whopping sum on a similar project that never took off.
It is recalled that Fayose is still being tried by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over allegations of misappropriation of the funds meant for the poultry project.
“This government is serious about agriculture and we are not playing lip service to it. The Fayose farms are not even reviveable if you look at them. The Benin-Owena poultry farm that we have revived, you can see the quality of the building. We put less than N50 million to revive those huge poultry units along Ikere-Ise road. If you compare it to those wooden sheds that are called poultry farms by the previous administration, they have already collapsed; they have all crashed because they were not meant to last in the first instance. It is obvious why we are confident that, placed side by side the antecedent of our predecessor, the difference is like 7up.
“The processing plant is put in place for YCAD with less than N20 million, what we have done for our YCAD farmers with less than 20 million is what was done in this state a few years ago with over a billion naira that is still the subject of investigation now. The project never saw the light of the day. There was no processing plant, there was just a building put up in Afao that was supposed to lead to the processing plant but there was no equipment there. If you go to all the units in the 16 local government areas you will know what I am talking about”, he said.
Also speaking, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr Arowosafe said the processing plant has started a test-run but would in the coming week begin full production.
The Commissioner explained that the state has 27,000 birds and that he is currently talking with organisations to make thing easy for farmers.
