Providence Farms Limited has faulted the Abia State Government over its allegations of mismanagement of its cocoa plantation, saying it was actually the administration that failed to honour its own part of the agreement.
It declared that for the 12 years it took charge of the cocoa plantation, located near Umuahia, it fulfilled its own part of the agreement, including payment of the agreed amount of money to both the state government and the host community.
It disclosed that it was actually the government that reneged on its part of the agreement to open up the roads inside the cocoa plantation, abandoned for more than six decades.
The Chairman of Providence Farms, Chief Charles Ogbonnaya, also accused the government of lying about the size of the plantation.
“Government has no 1,500 hectares of cocoa plantation anywhere. I don’t know why it should lie about such a thing,” he said.
Abia State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Cliff Agbaeze, had alleged in Abuja that the government revoked a previous Memorandum of Understanding it had with an investor because it mismanaged its 1,500 hectares of cocoa plantation.
The Commissioner also alleged that the previous agreement was not favourable to the government, hence its decision to hand over the plantation to a new investor.
Chief Ogbonnaya said that as much as his company was no longer interested in managing the cocoa plantation, it was necessary for him to set the records straight.
According to him, it was his company that actually brought the cocoa plantation back to life after it was abandoned during the administration of Governor Orji Uzor Kalu.
Said he, “The late Michael Okpara established the cocoa farm in 1962. By 1966, it was abandoned. It was when Orji Uzor came in that he tried to revive just 5% of the plantation, after which it was also abandoned.”
Chief Ogbonnaya disclosed that his company took over the abandoned cocoa farm in 2013 and had since then been managing it well in accordance with the agreement it had with the government.
He regretted that the government, which was supposed to open up the roads within the plantation, shirked that responsibility in spite of the fact that Providence Farms Limited continued to pay the agreed sum to both the government and the host community.
He dismissed the Commissioner’s claim that the MoU was skewed against the government, saying nobody should blame the company for that.
He reemphasized the fact that the entire cocoa plantation was not up to 1,500 hectares as claimed by the Commissioner, and urged the government to always stick to facts.
