The Katsina State Government yesterday suspended the distribution and sale of fertilizer to irrigation farmers in Mashi Local Government Area of the state. Alhaji Abdulkarim Abubakar, the Chairman of the Committee for Monitoring, Distribution and Sales of Fertilizer, ordered the suspension and closure of the fertilizer store in Mashi town.

Abubakar explained that the order followed alleged irregularities discovered at the warehouse where the commodity was being sold to the public. He said 55 bags of fertilizer were removed from the warehouse and dumped in a premises whose owner was not known.

Members of committee were bewildered over the discovery of the fertilizer whose owner could not be ascertained even as the allocation papers for the consignment were presented to it.

The commodity was said to had been brought out from the warehouse of one irrigation farm at Kwarin Kotai which could not also be traced. Besides, neither the store-keeper, who was holding the allocation papers for the fertilizer, nor the labourers who brought them out, offered any satisfactory explanation when the committee demanded for explanation on the consignment.

Consequently, the chairman directed the store-keeper to return the fertilizer to the warehouse and take stock of the 1,567 bags of the consignment and then ordered the closure of the warehouse and suspension of the sales until full investigation was carried out.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the committee visited Sankaya village at the Sabke Dam irrigation site for the sales of fertilizer to irrigation farmers.

NAN