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PDP asks Ogbeh to resign over rice claims

By Azimazi Momoh Jimoh, Abuja
10 March 2018   |   4:18 am
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, to immediately toe the path of honour and resign for allegedly “portraying Nigeria...

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, to immediately toe the path of honour and resign for allegedly “portraying Nigeria as a lying nation and bringing her to international opprobrium by deliberately falsifying claims relating to Nigeria’s relationship with Thailand.”

The party said the whole world was shocked when the ambassador of Thailand to Nigeria, Wattana Kuwongse, publicly denied ever informing Ogbeh that major rice mills were shutting down in Thailand as a result of drop in importation of rice by Nigeria, as claimed by the minister.

PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement, yesterday, said the development has further dragged down the image of the country, adding that the minister had neither clarified his claims nor offered any explanation for the heavy embarrassment he has caused the country, noting that such has placed a heavy moral burden on him and the federal government.

The opposition party also wondered why President Muhammadu Buhari, as Africa Union’s (AU) anti-corruption champion, has not taken any action to redeem the image of the country after the ugly development.

“It is clear that the intention of the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government was to use the minister of Agriculture to mislead Nigerians into believing that the administration has achieved national self-sufficiency in food production, a stunt which fell flat on its face and brought the nation into international ridicule,” the party noted.

It lamented: “The same minister, last year, programmed the exporting of rotten yams and brought the country into international disrepute, all in the desperate bid of APC interests to score cheap political points and push their ill-lucked 2019 re-election bid.”

According to the statement: “Earlier this week, Buhari’s handlers made the nation a laughing stock in the international arena when they railroaded the President into offering to help Ghana in the fight against corruption, when back at home, the federal government is an ocean of corruption and false claims.

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