The residence of a former Senate President, David Mark, in Otukpo town, Benue State has been gutted by Fire, Concise News reports.

Witnesses said the fire spread from a nearby bush bordering the fence of the ex-senate president’s residence and bunt down two ambulance vehicles as well as over 15 motor cycles parked in the premises on Thursday.

It was gathered that domestic workers at the residence made frantic efforts to put out the fire without much success before the arrival of the State Fire Service in Otukpo.

One of the domestic workers, who preferred anonymity, said, “we made every effort to quench the fire but the more we tried the more it continued to spread.
“It was when we noticed that we could not stop it from engulfing the guest house that we called in the Fire Service.” At the time of this report, however, none of the family members has yet commented on the matter even as it was learnt that Mark himself was away from home.

Benue to partner FTF to boost agribusiness

In related news, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has pledged to partner with Feed The Future (FTF) to improve agribusiness in the state. Ortom, who noted that his administration would ensure that the programme succeeded in the state, spoke during the Agribusiness Finance and Investment Summit in Makurdi, organised by Feed The Future, a United States Government’s global hunger and food security initiative.

The governor said it was based on improving the programme that he established the Office of Agribusiness in the state, stressing that he would ensure that farmers were adequately trained for enhanced productivity.
Earlier, the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr Timothy Ijir, urged farmers in the state to venture into mechanised farming in order to better their lot.
He said farmers would benefit more if they embraced mechanised farming because they would be cultivating on large scale, adding that most of the farming population in the state was using manual labour to cultivate as well as harvest their yields. “Also, some of them farm mainly for subsistence;that is they farm majorly for their family consumption thereby resulting to low productivity as well as low yields. There is need for them to step up their farming activities for their overall good,” he said.
On his part, the Managing Director, FTF, Dr Adam Saffer, said the organisation was ready to integrate women and youth in their activities to enable them fend for themselves. He stressed that the involvement of women and youths was necessary because they are the drivers of the needed change in agriculture.

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