By Chinonso Alozie

Owerri—The Imo State House of Assembly has started probe into the failure of autonomous communities to execute the palm plantation project given to them by the state government.

Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture,  Mr. Uche Agabige, confirmed this to Vanguard, yesterday, in Owerri.

Agabige, representing Orsu state constituency, said that its committee was ready to investigate over 600 autonomous communities in the state.

He said: “My committee is reaching out to communities that benefited from the palm plantation project fund from the government.

“We have visited some local government areas, such as Ohaji /Egbema, Oguta and  Orlu. Our plan is that we are going to visit all the communities in the state, but it might take us long.

“The project is a very serious one, knowing the position of agriculture in the life of our economy. So, the committee on agriculture is helping the government to make sure the project is not jeopardised.

“As long as these communities have collected money for the programme, what we want to do is find out what they did with the money they received.

“The communities that  did not do this project will be forced  through sanction, to make sure that they go back to implement this programme.”