Gov Badaru insists on $80bn sugar coy amid resistance

The Jigawa State Governor, Muhammad Badaru Abubakar, has said no amount of blackmail will stop the $80 million foreign investment attracted to the state from seeing the light of day.

A Chinese investor, Mr. Lee Group of Companies, invested the huge amount for the establishment of a sugar company under the auspices of Great Northern Agriculture Limited (GNAL) in the state.

The governor blew hot over attempts by some locals to resist the citing of the sugar company in their locality,

alleging that their farmlands would be taken over for sugarcane plantation.

Gov. Badaru gave the assurance yesterday when he visited the sugarcane seedling plantation site of the company in Garin Ciroma in Gagarawa Local Government Area, insisting that no amount of pressure would make the state to lose the biggest investment ever in the state, saying the project, if completed, would attract N60bn annual turnover in the state.

“Gagarawa sugar project is a done deal because the project is even ahead of schedule. The yield from the sugarcane plantation is at the average of 100 tonnes per hectare. This is 20 per cent higher than the normal yield.

“Jigawa State Government is firm in its commitment to the actualisation of the project. No amount of cheap blackmail will deter the present administration in ensuring that this project has become a reality.

“The plantation has the largest and most sophisticated plant in the country. It has computerised system that regulates the application of fertiliser and pesticide during irrigation,” he said.

Taking the governor round the project site, the General Manager of the company, a Chinese national who only gave his name as Mr. Ding, said plans were at an advanced stage to expand the 150 hectares of the sugarcane seedling plantation under the first phase to 1,000 hectares by the end of the year.

He added that his company was also planning to expend $37m for the construction of a 17-kilometre irrigation canal from River Hantsu in Miga Local Government Area to a plantation barrage in Gagarawa, saying the canal would aid in boosting irrigation farming in the state as farmers would be allowed to take its advantage.