Niger State Governor Umar Bago has admitted that his claim of paying graduates N500,000 to work on his farms was untrue.
Bago made the initial statement on October 16 during the World Food Day celebration in Lagos, where he said graduate assistants on his farms earned N500,000 monthly. He added that he had built farm communities within his estates and planned to expand farmland based on demand and capacity.
The governor explained that the initiative was meant to promote agricultural development and attract private investment to Niger State. However, during an interrogation with student activist Isah Mokwa at the Government House on Friday, Bago confessed that his earlier statement was made to “attract investors,” according to sources familiar with the meeting.
Mokwa, a master’s student at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, is a known critic of the Bago administration and often refers to the governor as “Governor Amunike.” He was reportedly arrested and taken to the governor for questioning before being charged with cybercrimes, cyberbullying, and possible thuggery and terrorism.
Sources told SaharaReporters that Bago personally ordered Mokwa’s prosecution and that the activist may remain in detention “because of orders from above.”
The governor has not publicly commented on the arrest or clarified his remarks about the farm project since admitting the initial claim was false.
