Agric minister dares Buhari, travels out of Nigeria without permission

The minister of state for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, over the weekend, discarded President Muhammadu Buhari’s order and traveled out of the country without presidential approval.

Recall that all ministers, presidential aides and top officials of the federal government have been mandated to seek approval from the president through the chief of staff, Mr Abba Kyari for trips outside the country.


But rather than wait for approval, Lokpobiri who is said to be having a running battle with the substantive minister, Mr Audu Ogbeh over schedule of duties, rushed out of the country in company of two of his aides, Mr Amber Enene and Mrs Eniye Ambakederimo to China.

The president was reportedly briefed and he instructed the chief of staff to ascertain whether or not Lokpobiri actually traveled without a written permission.

Two undercover agents were said to have been sent to the ministry after which the president directed Kyari to respond to Lokpobiri’s request to travel on Monday, January 9, 2017, knowing that the minister was already in China. The response asked Lokpobiri to ‘step down’ the trip.

A copy of the letter from the chief of staff and obtained by Leadership with reference number SH/COS/63/1/A/3310 and titled ”Re: Permission to travel to the Peoples Republic of China ”, read in part: “With reference to your letter Ref.No FMIC/PRPU/597/59, dated 28th December on the above subject matter, I write to inform that Mr President has directed that the trip be stepped down”.


According to a top presidency official, the minister had written ‎a letter dated December 28, 2016, to the president through Kyari but had yet to receive a response before jetting out to China with the aides.

According to a source, “The man in actual fact, wrote to this office but we were yet to reply before he travelled;j may be he took it for granted; we got to know from the Permanent Secretary on Monday evening that the minister left Nigeria twenty four hours ago and this was disrespectful to the office of president. The minister knows the rules, the guidelines are clear but may be he took such lightly.”

He, however, blamed the development on the rivalry between Ogbeh and Lokpobiri.

“These politicians should find a way of sorting out their issues, they should leave the civil servants out of their troubles. Why the PS? Why not the senior minister who had complained to all the directors that his colleague was not cooperating with him and that their inability to sort out schedules is creating problems.

“Ogbeh had complained to most of us and was already threatening to report the junior minister before the two guys quietly came to the ministry to secret verify Lokpobiri’s absence.”