Following the publication of our initial article of 18th July, where a group under the aegis of Concerned Plateau Indigenes, accused Barr. Simon Lalong and Nde Ezekiel Gomos of shady dealings in the past sale of BARC farms to Admiral Murtala Nyako, a separate group called the Plateau Youth Entrepreneurship Renaissance Group has offered a rejoinder in staunch defence of both Barr. Simon Lalong and Nde Ezekiel Gomos.

In a statement signed by its leader, Emmanuel Sabo Esq., the group rebutted allegations that Barr. Simon Lalong was employed by PIPC during the time of the sale, and therefore could not have been involved in sanctioning the deal. It also clarified that even though Nde Ezekiel Gomos’ was the head of PIPC, he was a mere board member of the committee and was not the main decision maker who negotiated nor sanctioned/ratified the deal.

The statement mentioned key actors, like Ambassador Fidelis Tapgun (the past Governor), Late Senator George Hoomkwap (the erstwhile chairman of JIB) and Dr John Brown the then managing director as the key actors who negotiated the deal and sold it at a paltry price to Admiral Murtala Nyako.

The other point covered in the rejoinder is the debacle of how much the farm was sold at?

Find the full rejoinder below.

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Our attention have been drawn to a write up by a faceless group called the Concerned Plateau Indigene (sic) and being actively promoted and circulated only by online media like Viewpoint, New Diplomat etc titled “Governor Lalong Fingered in Scandalous Sale of State owned BARC Farm” which it claims to be based on “checks” by a correspondent. 

We do not hold brief for Governor Lalong or Mr Ezekiel Gomos because we believe that they have a massive machinery of Government at their disposal to defend themselves.

But we are bold to say that we will go to any length to defend anything positive about Plateau State and if Governor Lalong has done something positive, we will openly defend him without caring whose ox is gored.

We are not surprised that some jobless people, usually envious of others that  are working tirelessly to uplift the quality of life of the ordinary Plateau citizens,  will go to any length promote falsehoods just because their personal interests are not being met.

In their deep seated animus of hatred and jealousy, they concoct lies and fiction and package them under the garb of expose, thus deceiving the public, as part of the usual pull –him- down syndrome, which has become a culture among certain people in Plateau state even among some of the so-called elders that have spent most of their lives, contributing virtually nothing to the growth of Plateau state. Some of these jobless people have held all manner of positions at the very top in this country but they can’t point to any concrete legacy that they have left behind in Plateau State.

We see the hand of Esau behind the voice of Jacob, meaning that the writers of the article are only acting someone’s script, someone who we suspect may have actually superintended over the sale of BARC Farms by proxy, and is trying to change the narrative.

We see this as the actions of someone who is envious that Governor Lalong is making waves and achieving so much especially in the area of peace and good governance, and revival of failed enterprises in the State.

Meanwhile, such jobless people can only be remembered as former this and former that– with nothing to show for their long sojourn in the various top offices they have once occupied. What a pity! Others are innocent media men or women who are deceived into thinking that they have an expose.

Even children in secondary school in Plateau State will tell you that they know who was the big masquerade behind the sale of BARC Farms, and this is no secret because their parents would have told them nostalgic stories about how they used to buy chicken and pork from BARC Farms in the mid-eighties and early nineties at very affordable prices.

For the un- informed, it  is no secret that when late  Senator George Baba Hoomkwap, a bosom friend of ex-Governor Fidelis Tapgun was  appointed in 1992 as the Chairman of the Jos International  Breweries (JIB) little did the people of Plateau State kmow that one of his mandates was to process the transfer of ownership of the BARC Farms to Admiral Murtala Nyako, a close confidant of  former President Ibrahim Babaginda, without whose tacit support and approval,  Sir Fidelis Tapgun could not have became  the Governor of Plateau State in  January 1992, probably as way of expressing appreciation.

Records already in public domain, which we have equally sighted, revealed that when in 1993 JIB could no longer pay its debts to various banks led by First Bank plc, the sale of BARC Farms was discussed at the Board meeting of JIB chaired by the late Senator George Baba Hoomkwap. The sighted minutes of the Board meeting available in JIB have confirmed that the Board appointed late George Hoomkwap and Dr John Brown, the MD of JIB to handle the sale of the JIB’s interest in the Farms to Admiral Nyako.

There was no mention of Mr Ezekiel Gomos being a member of the negotiation team though he was a member of the Board. How then could he be said to have handled the sale of the BARC Farms from beginning to the end. Just lies!

What is more, the minutes of the Board meeting and the records we have sighted indicate that Admiral Nyako, through Ilhama Enterprises bought 90% of the shares of BARC Farms Ltd. at a ridiculous fee of   N17.9m.  Was this the actual fee agreed between Hoomkwap/ Brown and Nyako ? Only Governor Tapgun can tell since Senator Hoomkwap is late and he was the Governor that Senator Hoomkwap reported to. It is obvious that Senator Hoomkwap could not be reporting to Mr Ezekiel Gomos who was just a member of the Board representing PIPC, and there were other members of the Board like  Da P D Pwajok..

The faceless writers of the publication also lied that in 1993, Governor Simon Lalong was a staff of PIPC, and that he and the former MD of PIPC, Mr Ezekiel Gomos initiated and concluded the sale of BARC farms.

We want the world to see the barefaced lies of this so-called Concerned Plateau Indigenes, because public records in PIPC have revealed that Governor Simon Lalong has never worked in PIPC for even one minute, talk less of being even a legal adviser.

It is therefore a BIG LIE that Lalong was involved in the scandalous transaction as he was neither a staff of JIB nor a staff of the Plateau Investment and Property Company (PIPC).  We understand that in 1993 Lalong was a young lawyer in private practice.

Even if Lalong was a staff of PIPC (which we have confirmed he was not), we want the world to know that BARC Farms was sold by JIB, and not by PIPC!! And it was not the Farms that was sold but 90% shares in the BARC Farms was sold to Ilhama Enterprises Ltd while JIB still owned the 10% which they still do up to this moment. So it erroneous for people to say that Admiral Nyako bought BARC Farms.

It baffles us that people would tell such blatant lies just to tarnish the Governor Lalong’s name, not knowing that other people can also go and cross-check the staff list of PIPC as at 1993 and other records in JIB.

We also find it laughable to say that Mr Ezekiel Gomos who was the Managing Director of PIPC at that time, will have the power and authority to by-pass the Managing Director of JIB (Dr Brown) and Chairman of JIB (Senator George Hoomkwap) and proceed to negotiate the sale of BARC Farms on behalf of its owners (ie JIB) when PIPC at that time owned less than 30% of JIB plc.

Even if we believe for a moment, the stupidity of the claim of the so called Concerned Plateau Indigenes that Mr Ezekiel Gomos was very close to the Governor of the state at that time, ie (Sir Fidelis Tapgun who was Governor 1992-1993 when the 90% of BARC Farms was sold) ,  was it possible for him to be closer to Tapgun than George Hoomkwap, who was not only his Goemai buddy but a childhood friend.

We understand that Mr Gomos only joined the Tapgun government as the MD of PIPC on secondment from NNDC in October 1992, by which time late Senator Hoomkwap had been Chairman of JIB for nearly one year.

How  Mr Gomos, just after a  few months in office,  could hoodwink the Governor and to perpetrate such a big sale to Admiral Nyako  alone without the Governor’s knowledge and active endorsement and even by-passing the Chairman Hoomkwap, Tapgun’s bosom friend can only be a miracle!

Is it possible that this same Mr Gomos, the then MD of PIPC which had less than 30% ownership in JIB could also  hoodwink the MD of JIB, the Chairman of JIB, the entire Board of JIB, and the other 70% shareholders which at that time included Guinness Nigeria Ltd, Benue State, Continental Merchant Bank etc and even by-pass the Governor of the State (Sir Fidelis Tapgun) and conduct a clandestine  sale of BARC Farms to NYAKO, singlehandedly, with only Barr Simon Lalong as his accomplice? Haba, Plateau? Seriously? Was the Governor so dumb or was he jazzed?

Either way, we want Governor Tapgun to explain to Plateau people what really happened?

Where the write up became more muddled is a preposterous claim that when Mr Gomos became SSG under Governor Joshua Dariye, a Committee was set up by Governor Dariye headed by a Special Adviser on Legal Matters to investigate the sale and the Report of the Committee never saw the light of the day.

The write up stated that when asked, (by whom, we don’t know)  Mr Gomos gave conflicting answers about the amount paid for the transaction and the whereabouts of the money, further  claiming  that Admiral Nyako said he gave N180m to Mr Gomos. And that documents exist for all these claims.

We hereby challenge them to publish these documents including the evidence that Admiral  Nyako said that he gave Mr Gomos the sum of N180million!

We are confident that these claims are clearly a huge piece of balderdash and nonsense because the transaction was never between Admiral Nyako and Mr Gomos, but between Nyako and JIB plc as represented by the late Senator Hoomkwap  and Dr John Brown. Why would Admiral Nyako pay money through Mr Gomos when Mr Gomos was not even the representative of JIB in the sale and transaction??

Our investigations in the Cabinet Office Jos (which keeps records of all Committees set-up by the State Government) revealed that there has never been such a Committee during the tenure of Governor Dariye on the sale of BARC. Never! Rather it was a halfhearted attempt by the PLHA during the Jang era which never unraveled anything.

Even if there was such a Committee by Governor Dariye, (but there was none!)  and even if a Report was suppressed  as claimed by the writers of these lies,  why  was the so-called Chairman of the Committee not bold enough to publicize his own copy of the Report after the same Mr Gomos left office in 2003. And if such a Report existed, why haven’t the writers got the expose to publish its so-called findings. In any case, who was this Legal Adviser to Dariye, we challenge him or her to please step forward and publish the Report or be dammed!

The writers also made another ridiculous claim that the proceeds of the sales was never paid to any Government coffers. It is obvious that these people are either very ignorant or stupid or both!

Why would Admiral Nyako pay the money to the State Government, when he was transacting with JIB which was not even a parastatal of the Plateau State Government. And the  BARC Farms was never owned by the Plateau State Government so why would he pay the sale amount to the state government? He would have paid only to the JIB or to its representative in the transaction. Did the writers check in JIB to confirm whether JIB  or its  Bankers received the ridiculous N17.9m or not?

In their hurry to throw mud at Governor Lalong and Mr Gomos, the writers deliberately and conveniently forgot that BARC Farms was not setup by the Plateau State Government, but was established and owned by JIB;  and so why  would the proceeds of the sale  be given to the State government,   who was only one  shareholder out of many others?

They further lied that Admiral Nyako admitted to investigators (which investigators?) that he gave the money for the purchase of BARC Farms to Mr. Gomos. Wao! We are not sure that anyone paying for an asset as big as BARC Farms, even if he got the asset at a giveaway, would he pay the money to an individual. Was it by cash or by cheque? We hope Admiral Nyako told the so-called investigators the mode of payment?  Was he given a receipt for the N180m by Mr Gomos or JIB??  Well, well, this is another weird lie!!

So who did Admiral Nyako sign the Sales Agreement with? Was it the same Mr Gomos or with JIB plc? Why would he sign the Agreement with someone else, if he paid the money to Mr Gomos?

We are sure Admiral Nyako who is an officer and a gentleman is still alive today can speak for himself. We may not be an admirer of Admiral Nyako for what he did to further destroy the BARC Farms, but  we don’t  think that he would have been  as foolish as to do what the faceless writers said he did.

It is true that Governor Lalong as part of his rescue policy has almost concluded plans to acquire 90% of the BARC Farms that was sold to Nyako/Ilhama at a price of N1.5billion (not N3bn as the liars will want us to believe) and this price, we have confirmed  was reached,  after long negotiations between Admiral Nyako and  a team of four  Commissioners including that of the Ministry of  Commerce and that of the Ministry of Lands and Surveys but  Mr Ezekiel Gomos was not even part of that negotiating team.

The write up went further to that say Mr Gomos made tremendous wealth apparently after the 1993 “sale of BARC Farms” and even sent his family abroad and that he owns properties in USA, Abuja and Jos.

We cannot speak for Mr Gomos about his source of “wealth” but we know some facts: Mr Gomos’s family have always been travelling out and staying with him abroad each time he was either in the US or UK even before he joined the Plateau State government under Tapgun in 1992 or the government of Dariye in 1999. In fact, Governor Tapgun was the one that invited Mr Gomos from the USA to come home and set up PIPC when he was in the US on a one year Fellowship program paid for by the US Government. In fact, we can confirm that Mr Gomos had to cut short his internship assignment at the World Bank to come home in response to this call to service.

So for someone to lie that Gomos sent his family abroad due to wealth acquired from Admiral Nyako is baloney and fiction. We can also categorically state that Mr Gomos does not own any property in the US or in Abuja- this can be corroborated by investigations, and we challenge the writers to provide any evidence of their claim.

Finally, people in Plateau State and beyond know Mr Gomos as a hardworking and an astute business entrepreneur who since 1994, using radio and other platforms, has been encouraging others, especially Plateau indigenes  to do some business and become self-reliant, especially stock broking (which he established in Jos) and if he has made millions of Naira from stock broking or other investments, he will be a natural target for the typical Plateau envy and jealousy, being manifested by others who would not take risk but rather wallow on dependency.

Furthermore, if Mr. Gomos was shrewd enough to convince Governor Jang’s government to purchase his property on a willing buyer – willing seller basis, (could  he  have forced his way on Governor Jang since he was not in their government?) and if in the process, he  made some money, people should stop  complaining unless  if  there was  evidence that the transaction was not transparent. Making wild allegations based on lies has been the stock in trade of many persons on the Plateau. Not surprising!

In conclusion, we know that the authors of the write up obviously just want to throw filth around hoping it will catch and stick, but it is clear and evident that the theme of the write up is sheer envy, bitterness and resentment of the tremendous strides Governor Lalong is doing in reviving the economy of Plateau state and the role Mr Gomos is playing to contribute his own quota in that direction.

The writers seem to be disappointed that where they have failed, Governor Lalong is succeeding and this is threatening their status and standing, so any weapon they can use against him is game. What a shame! What a pity?

Emmanuel Sabo Esq 

Plateau Youth Entrepreneurship Renaissance Group          

The initial article which we published on 18th July can be found at: http://www.viewpointnigeria.com/group-fingers-lalong-gomos-barc-farms-deal-scandal/          

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Rejoinder: The scandalous sale of BARC farms is Tapgun’s legacy, not Lalong’s