Oyo farmers condemn alleged media war against cassava processing firm

The Psaltry Cassava Growers Association of Oyo State has berated an attempt by some individuals to gang up and launch a media war against Psaltry International Ltd., a cassava processing company in Africa, based in Ado Awaye, Iseyin Local Government Area (LGA).

While reacting to a publication on Thursday, titled “Exclusive: Why We Are No Longer Selling Cassava to Psaltry – Oke Ogun Cassava Farmers,” the Chairman of the Cassava Out-Growers Association of Oyo State, Alhaji Sulaimon Kehinde, described the publication as the handiwork of business rivals, threatened by the global achievements of the company.

Sulaimon, who spoke with reporters alongside the Baale Alayide of Alayide Village, where the company is situated, Alhaji Gazali Alayide, told reporters that the defiant farmers were used by some groups that export cassava and saw the processing company as a threat.

He said Psaltry started its operations at Alayide village by providing farm inputs and free lands, incorporated the cassava out-growers into a group to access loans for cultivation, which the company collected back for processing and paid back under a memorandum of understanding (M.O.U), which has subsisted till date.

“The company is not bothered about the fruitless efforts of some people to tarnish the good image of Psaltry International Company Ltd. through such gutter journalism, whereby they engaged a journalist without respect for the tenets of the media to publish a one-sided report.

“The good image of Psaltry company across Africa as the foremost cassava processing plant did not just start today; they started by empowering farmers with lands and inputs while providing avenues for us to access loans for our farming activities with the understanding that our produce would have a depositing point in their facility for processing. Today, some of the farmers reneged on their loan payment agreements with the banks, and we, the company, are currently repaying banks to the tune of over N200 million.

“Some of these individuals are the ones being used by some new companies that export cassava to foreign countries, not minding the impacts on the Nigerian economy and the people of Nigeria, who are already groaning under the present recession.

“We call on Nigerians and stakeholders across the world, in our efforts to build a country less dependent on oil, to disregard such stories paid for by individuals who cannot equal the strides of Psaltry across Africa and the world.”

Kehinde said his body has a pleasant relationship with the company and that those mentioned in the publication were not members of his association.

He claimed that recently, some individuals started entering farms to buy cassava meant for Psaltry’s processing plant and taking it outside the country, which allowed most of the farmers to renege on the agreements made with the banks and the company.

Sulaimon said his association remained in support of the company for its efforts so far in building farmers and farming activities in Oke-Ogun and Ibarapa areas of Oyo State.

“I can tell you that those behind this are competitors who don’t farm but give some people money to go into rural farms and buy for peanuts from them. They see some of the farmers as in dire need of money.

“It is unfortunate that those sent by these people now go to farmers at Alayide and pack up to 70 and 80 trailers daily from our abode in Alayide, which we have recently resisted because it has led to our members selling cheaply to them and defaulting on their loans.”

He asserted that despite the attack on Psaltry, the company had gone into the record as an indigenous company that gave cassava a global reckoning among farm products in Nigeria.

The traditional Chief of Alayide village, Alhaji Gazali Alayide, said he was surprised to hear that some people could gang up against a company that has done so much for the people of the village, Ado Awaye, and Iseyin communities, as well as the cassava growers.

Gazali noted that apart from providing potable water for as many as eleven communities around the processing facility, Psaltry International connected them to the national grid for free, facilitated the construction of seven kilometres of Alayide road, and created jobs for their children.

“I just want to urge Mrs. Yemisi Iranloye, the CEO of Psaltry, not to be deterred by such a campaign of calumny by those with the intention to bring down the company and humanity.