Metro

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2023 METRO

Dry season farming: ARDS unveils

irrigation scheme committee

By Stanley Onyekwere

In furtherance to measures targeted at boosting Agricultural Production in Abuja, the nation’s capital city, the Secretary for FCT Agriculture & Rural Development (ARDS), Mallam Abubakar Ibrahim has set up an Inter-Departmental Committee on irrigation, aimed at supporting farming activities during the dry season.

Abubakar explained that the objective of setting up the Committee was to look into ways that FCT Administration can support more farmers engage in all season farming, not only during the dry season.

He added that the Committee will need to conduct a geographic assessment of the FCT, in order to recommend support strategies through improvement of the irrigation systems

The ARDS boss in a statement from the Deputy Director, Information & Communications at the Secretariat, Zakari Aliyu, disclosed that constitution of the Committee was an outcome of the Management meeting where he stressed the need for farmers to be encouraged to engage in farming during the dry season.

He opined that with the rising cost of food items and growing population farming during the dry season will help not only bolster food production but make the prices more affordable for residents. According to him, the FCT Administration has approved the procurement of some critical farm inputs such as Agro-chemicals as well as water pumping machines which will be sold to FCT farmers at 50% subsidized rates.

He adds: “Our plan is to distribute some of the inputs we have procured during this dry season in February while we prepare for a major support for farmers on time before the commencement of rain in March.”

Furthermore, the Secretary opined that the Committee he noted will be supported by the expertise of Agricultural engineers to ensure that the intervention of the Secretariat will meet required standards for durability and effective utilisation.

He therefore, charged the Committee to explore partnership with investors to support to initiative.

“The Committee, which is chaired by the Secretary, consists of membership from the technical departments of the Secretariat”, the statement added.

Permanent Secretary, FCTA, Mr Olusade Adesola (5th left) flanked by FCT INEC REC, alh. Yahaya Bello (4th left) and Executive Secretary, FCDA, Engr Shehu Had Ahmed (6th left) and other senior officials of the FCTA and INEC during the REC’s visit to the FCTA. Abuja at weekend

2023 Elections: FCT Minister declares support for INEC

By Stanley Onyekwere

Minister of the FCT, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has pledged the support of the FCT Administration to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the successful conduct of the 2023 elections in the nation’s capital.

Bello declared this support when a delegation from the FCT Independent National Electoral Commission led by the FCT Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Alh. Yahaya Bello paid a courtesy visit to the FCTA.

The Minister, who was represented by the FCTA Permanent Secretary, Mr Olusade Adesola, opined that the FCT Administration and the FCT INEC have enjoyed a worthwhile working relationship and thanked the REC for the public acknowledgement of the support the FCT Administration had rendered to the Commission.

While thanking the Commission for the preparations made so far for the conduct of the elections, he said the FCT had also made efforts at sensitising members of the public on the collection of their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).

Accorfing to him: “I want to believe that the FCT is among the States with a very low uncollected PVC, but we still believe that much can be done. We want a situation where hundreds of PVCs will be collected so that, nobody would say it is because I did not get my PVC, that’s why I did not vote.

“That is why we empowered the Special Assistant to the Hon. Minister to start ward to ward sensitisation in the FCT to engage the people so that everybody can collect their PVCs and get ready for the election”. The Minister also noted that remarks from the REC that INEC was fully prepared for the election lends credence to the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari that he will bequeath to Nigeria, a very credible and transparent election.

He equally commended the FCT INEC for its overall efforts in ensuring the success of the 2023 elections, adding that “We want to thank you for all the arrangements that have been put in place and more importantly, thank FCT INEC under your watch for giving great support to the National INEC to ensure that the conduct of election in FCT is done with precision”.

Speaking earlier, the FCT REC, Yahaya Bello, said the INEC delegation was at the FCTA to acquaint the FCT Minister on the level of preparedness of the FCT INEC for the 2023 elections and also to thank the Minister for the support granted to the Commission so far.

He said: “One of the reasons we are here is to express our appreciation and gratitude to the Hon. Minister and the Ministry, especially when we conducted our continuing voters registration exercise.

“We had received all the cooperation that we needed from the Hon. Minister and the Ministry in the conduct of the exercise, in terms of venue and everything”.

He was particularly appreciative of the Minister’s approval for the use of the Old Parade Ground for the continuing voters’ registration exercise.

“The Minister and the Ministry graciously, not only availed us the use of the Old Parade Ground but shouldered the responsibility of maintaining law and order and security during the days that we used it to conduct continuing voters registration exercise.

“In fact, without that gesture, so many other people would not have been in a position to have participated in the programme and collect their PVCs”, he added.

While assuring the FCT Minister of the preparedness of INEC to successfully hold the elections, the FCT REC reiterated that the under performance of the BVAS machine during the FCT Area Council elections had led to improvements being made on the equipment.

“The non-performance of the BVAS as we expected has resulted in a lot of improvement of the machinery itself, which was very amply demonstrated when we conducted other separate elections after the FCT.

“We went to Ondo, we went to Ekiti, we went to Anambra State and we went to Osun State. I will say that I was opportune to have gone to these three States as a supporting REC and I witnessed the performance of the BVAS as against what transpired during the FCT elections, and I want to assure you that this time around, the Presidential elections, the BVAS will perform very well in the FCT”, he stressed.

Also present during the courtesy visit were the Chief of Staff to the Minister, Malam Bashir Mai Bornu, the Executive secretary, FCDA Engr Shehu Hadi Ahmed, SSA on Security to the Minister Amb. Abu Muhammed, Director of Security Services, FCTA, Mr Adamu Gwary, FCT INEC Administrative secretary, Mr Godwin Wada Edibo and other senior officials of the FCTA and INEC.