The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has debunked the reports making the rounds that the ministry spent N18.9 billion on bush clearing contract during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Reports had earlier emerged that the ministry spent N18.9 billion on bush clearing during the COVID-19 lockdown and received an audit query to warrant summon by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Account.

However, the ministry, in a statement issued on Wednesday by its Director of Information, Dr Joel Oruche, said it only carried out bush clearing and land preparation of 3,200 hectares in eight states of the federation, adding that the project was allocated by the respective state governments at a total cost of N2.5 billion.

Oruche named the states as Osun, Ekiti, Edo, Cross River, Kaduna, Kwara, Plateau, and Ogun.

He stated that it was other projects executed by the ministry during the COVID–19 period that summed up the total sum quoted which included the construction of rural roads in the six geo-political zones of the country.

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According to him, others were soil sampling and mapping; farmers registration; and rehabilitation and equipping of four national soil laboratories in Umudike, Ibadan, Kaduna, and Abuja.

Oruche said the projects were successfully executed and verified by relevant government agencies.

“The ministry wishes to state that if the statement emanated from the House Public Account Committee, the committee must have been quoted out of context.

“To put the record straight, however, the ministry at no time received any audit query to warrant summon by the committee,” he stated.

Oruche added that the various projects were part of a stimulus package under the Agriculture for Food and Jobs Programme of the Federal Government to generate employment and grow the economy to mitigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The Star