The Governor of Cross River State, Senator Bassey Otu, has suspended the verification or re-verification exercise of government-owned cocoa estates in Etung Local Government Area.
Governor Otu also directed the Department of Asset Management and Recovery to further extend the period for payment of the Government lease fee to 30th September 2024.
Otu who gave the directive through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Nsa Gill, on Thursday, 15th August, frowned at the surge of thuggery and criminality in the cocoa estates.
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“His Excellency, Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu, Governor of Cross River State has directed as follows:
1. The Department of Asset Management and Recovery should further extend the period for payment of Government lease fee to 30th September 2024, upon which farmers who fail to pay their lease fee will have their farm plots revoked.
2. The indefinite suspension of all forms of verification or re-verification in the Government owned cocoa estates in Etung Local Government Area, as the said exercise has become a distraction to government and farmers alike.
3. That all farmers should co-operate with the Department of Assets Management and Recovery to ensure that all beneficiaries of the 2024 supplementary cocoa allocation take possession of their farm plots mandatorily.
4. That all farmers with fake allocation papers, including those whose names are not on the cocoa allocation master lists to stay off the Cocoa Estates to avoid arrest and prosecution.
9. Government frowns at the sudden surge of thuggery and all forms of criminality in the cocoa estates and is ready to deal decisively with such perpetrators,” the statement read.
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