Fulani herdsmen have destroyed farms worth more than N10 billion in Adamawa State, making the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) loan beneficiaries stranded and unable to repay their loans which they collected for massive agricultural production.

Beneficiaries of Federal Government sponsored loans from CBN on agriculture in Adamawa State under the auspices of Tallafa multipurpose cooperative society, have become stranded and unable to meet the dateline to repay these loans.

The beneficiaries are seeking an extension through a letter to the CBN signed by the president and secretary of the Association of Non-micro Finance Institutions of Nigeria, Felicity Adama Manna and Peter Joctkthan, who acted as their facilitators. They said most of the beneficiaries have abandoned their farms due to communal clashes because they cannot account for their farms.

“Those who collected have become victims of herdsmen attacks rendering their hardwork useless as thousands of cows have feasted on their farms. They have called on the CBN to extend the loan repayment date so that the farmers can meet up in 2022.

“They are pleading for the extension of the terms of repayment following herders/farmers crisis that claim lives and farmlands overtaken by the cattle rearers worth more than N10 billion in Adamawa State.

“Thousands of these farmers have also cried out to the CBN since herders and farmers don’t have insurance cover policy in the country, it would be impossible to compensate the colossal loss of farmers who are directly the beneficiaries to enable the association meet up to their earlier agreed terms of repayment either from its side or the farmers,” they said.

The multipurpose cooperative therefore requests that the repayment be extended to 2022 to enable it locate the beneficiaries who have either been killed or have ran away from their farms because of herdsmen attacks.

The Association of Non-micro Finance Institutions of Nigeria in Adamawa State had written to the national president of the association intimating the office of brutal killings of farmers by herdsmen in the state which have made the farmers stranded.

•Sourced from a Daily Independent report

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