Pat Hyua
21/08/2021
Taraku Mills Limited is located at Km 84, Makurdi -Enugu Rd, Benue State, Nigeria. This allowed ailing industry is capable of producing the finest grade of all forms of edible oil, different kinds of flour, brewers grit including all forms of animal feeds and diet. In fact, in its days of glory, Taraku Mills supplied all parts of northern Nigeria with vegetable oil. Put in a modern state, the company has the capacity of employing over 1000 youths, both skilled and unskilled. Then, it was arguably the largest of it kind in the whole of West African Sub Region.
The plant has suffered a lot of neglect born out of corruption for the past years. But before the government of Samuel Ortom came on board, the company was leased to an indigene of the State, Mr Ernest Jov by the administration of Gabriel Suswam. Mr Jov who hails from Gwer West Local government had fixed the company and commenced production. I visited the company myself and saw the machines working. There's no oil I have ever tasted that is like Taraku Mills oil. The inability of Mr Jov to continue was as a result of alleged "interest scheming" emanating from the Benue State People's House, Makurdi. I had a one on one interaction with Mr Jov myself over the state of the company in Abuja in 2019.
THE HAND OF DECEIT AND INSINCERITY.
Governor Samuel Ortom who almost cried at St Peters Catholic Church Makurdi before God, Rev. Fr. Steven Ishor and the parishioners in 2015 pledged to revive Taraku Mills if elected. I was at the church service myself. Good enough, when he was finally elected, possibly because of that promise and others, he (Governor, Ortom) told the people in 2016 that all plans were put in place to start production at the company. He said, already, N5b was set aside for purchase of soya beans for production at the company. The governor visited the company at least two times between the time he was first elected and 2016 and described the company as "gold mine".
Surprisingly, Governor Samuel Ortom after his reelection in 2019 appeared on Harvest FM program and declared Taraku Mills Limited "obsolete". Are you kidding me!!! But this decision of the Governor to declare the company obsolete seems to be an act that can be best explained by Frustration Aggression Theory, apologies to Dollard, Doob, Miller, Mower and Sears.
Recall, in early 2019, before the elections, there were allegations that the Governor planned to sell the company to private investors that he would in turn own up to 75% shares. The implication of that allegation was that the Governor was selling the company to "Samuel Ortom", an appendage of Oracle Farms. This was strongly rejected and the governor had to issue a press statement through his CPS, Mr Terver Akase that his government never planned to sell the company.
However, the allegation of selling this company flew even more higher during the time as some even alleged that the company has already been sold. In the middle of all these allegations in 2019, some of my brothers approached me that the government reserved land located just after Howe, some few miles away from the company has already been leased or sold to our former President, H.E Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and plantation of economic trees has since commenced on the land.
Now, when you look at these issues even with a biased mind, you are asking the questions:
2. When the governor said the company was going to start production, and that N5b was already set aside for purchase of soya beans, what did he mean? How do you set aside money for production on a plant that is obsolete? It is still the scheming to grap the company right?
3. How can machines that were repaired in 2013 and put under fine production now go beyond repairs? OK, let's agree the governor is right on this so let's move to the next question.
4. Even if the machines are obsolete, is there no one that will tell the governor that the company was not built by God, it was built by a governor like him, so saying he can't fix it is a greatest wickedness to the state?
5. Why did the governor has to wait till after public out cry and rejection of his purported plans to buy the company to declare it obsolete? Why? This is an evil strategy to devalue the company and allocate it cheaply to a proxy...this is highly offensive and a way of doing a people cheap 419 as if they all are fools.
6. Why did he wait till after his re-elections to tell the people the company is obsolete? During that time, I wanted to meet the governor and tell him he wasn't expected to use resources from Oracle Farms to fix Taraku Mills, so it was wrong for him to get angry just because the people were saying don't buy or sell.
If you go to Borno and Gombe states, the Governors there built companies, I have seen them myself, let Akase google and show the Governor. Conversely, in Benue, Governor Ortom says it is impossible to fix a company that was built by another governor but he has now put that same company on sale, so what is he selling?
Again, when the Governor took over leadership of the state, he visited and inspected the company many times with his team as you can see in these pictures before saying N5b was set aside for purchase of soya beans for production at the company and declaring the company a gold mine, what later changed? The scheming right?
THE HAND OF SADISM.
This is about the deliberate refusal of the Governor to pay the ex wokers of the company. Already, close to 40 out of the 210 unpaid ex staff of the company are reportedly dead since they started fighting for their benefits. This figure (210) include only ex staff that agreed to go to court to claim their entitlements.
Rewinding, in an attempt to settle the issue, the then Governor, Senator Gabriel Torwua Suswam set up a panel of enquiry headed by the then Director of industries, Mr Jeff Yaji who investigated and released it report establishing that N1b was due for payment and the sum was equally set aside for the purpose. But before this time, the ex workers had already taken the government to court.
From the foregoing, the Benue State Government decided that since it had accepted liability of the said amount, there was no need for a continuous litigation and called for out of court settlement and accordingly reached agreement with the staff of Taraku Mills on the 12th May, 2015. The agreement was filed in the court on the 22nd of May, 2015 and the court entered judgement on the 10th of June, 2015. The then Attorney-General, Mr. Philip Ierkwagh signed the conscent judgement for the State Government before the presiding judge, Hon Justice R. B Haastrup.
This agreement was to the effect that the government was given 12 months to pay the judgement sum which was N989m as at that time with interest of 10% on every default. The first installment was to be paid on the 31st August, 2015. Second installment on the 31st Oct., 2015. Third installment on 30th December, 2015. Forth installment 28th February, 2016. Fifth installment 30th April, 2016. And sixth installment 30th June, 2016.
When Ortom finally took over power from Suswam, his government rejected the agreement and refused to pay the workers. The government argued that the agreement was among other things, "... given under a mistake of fact, misrepresentation, and "fraud" and was therefore a nullity". Ortom's government therefore dragged the workers to court.
The court ruled that the matter was purely between staff of TML and the state government so there was nothing as fraud. Of course, the counsel to the claimants, Chief F.S Tsenga, argued that the agreement between the claimants and the government was adequately filed in court and the court entered consent judgement in favour of the claimant.
As a government that believes in God, you are thinking the workers were paid their money at this point right? Conversely, this was the time the government rather brought out it armoury against the workers. Governor Ortom's government has taken the workers to all known courts, the workers have equally won everywhere he has taken them. Defeating the government everywhere and up to appeal, they have now taken the workers to supreme Court, what manner of insensitivity is that?
But it is important for you to note that, the government that filed the consent judgement that the government of Samuel Ortom declared a "fraud" was the government of Senator Gabriel Suswam who himself is a lawyer of decades. The Attorney General that signed the consent judgement for the then government has a PhD in law even as at the time of filing the consent judgement.
I am still wondering why Suswam would do such a fraud. Suswam is from Sankara, Ortom is from "MINDA" were this factory is located. Of the 210 staff, over 70 are from the same LG with the present Attorney General Michael Gusa . Out of this 70 staff, about 30 are from Njiriv with Hon Micheal Gusa, this is where Taraku Mills is located. So what's the fraud here?
But why would a government elected to better the lives of the people turns to be a thorn in the flesh of the same people who brought it to power?"
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