Farmers allege disappearance of 8,000 bags of Tinubu fertiliser in Taraba

No fewer than 8,000 bags of fertiliser allocated to the Taraba State Government under President Bola Tinubu’s Fertiliser Input Support Programme are unaccounted for, raising concerns over their whereabouts.

President Tinubu announced the procurement of 449,000 metric tonnes of fertiliser in July 2026 to boost food security across the country. Taraba State received 20,000 bags of NPK and Urea under the programme.

Of the allocation, 12,000 bags were handed to the Taraba State chapter of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) for distribution to its members, while the remaining 8,000 bags were allocated to the state Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security for cooperatives and organised farmers.

The Director of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in Taraba State, Luka Dabut, confirmed that the federal ministry received and transferred the 8,000 bags to the state government. “The federal ministry received a total of 8,000 bags of NPK and Urea for the Taraba State Government. The commodity was brought in during my predecessor’s tenure. On my arrival, I found them in our store under safe custody,” Dabut said.

“Within a short time, the Federal Government engaged a consultant to process the distribution. I engaged the Taraba State Ministry of Agriculture. The Permanent Secretary, directors, DSS and other security agencies were present. We successfully handed over the 8,000 bags to the state ministry. Not a single bag was left in our store,” he added.

However, the Taraba State Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Prof. Nicholas Namessan, denied that the ministry ever took custody of the fertiliser. Responding to enquiries about the missing allocation, Namessan said in a text message: “There’s a Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in Taraba State. They handled the distribution by themselves.”

Meanwhile, AFAN has begun distributing the 12,000 bags allocated to the association at the Veterinary Warehouse opposite the Christian Centre along FGGC Road in Jalingo. Farmers who were expected to benefit from the 8,000 bags allocated to the state government, however, said no such distribution had taken place. They called on security agencies, the Presidency and Taraba State Governor Agbu Kefas to investigate the matter and determine what happened to the fertiliser.