Sakpei (N/R), Jan. 13, GNA – A huge rice farm belonging to the Board Chairman of the Agricultural Development, Alhaji Ibrahim Adam, has been destroyed by fire set by a man who claimed he was roasting cassava.

Mr Yakubu Ibrahim, brother of Alhaji Adam, said only 45 acres had been harvested out of 150-acre farm when the man-made disaster struck at Sakpei in the Yendi Municipality on January 10.

He told officials of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) who visited the burnt farm that the man who caused the catastrophe, known only as Issifu, admitted he started the fire.

Mr Ibrahm said the former Minister of Agriculture spent a lot of money on the new variety of the Jasmine Perfume Rice and that they were harvesting the rice when the combine harvester had a break down and was being repaired at Sakpei.

He quoted Issifu as having said he was roasting his cassava in his nearby farm when the wind blew the fire into the rice farm and that the “fire was so fearful that he could not put it out.”

Mr Ibrahim said last year Issifu caused a fire that burnt a 20-acre rice farm belonging to Afa Mahamadu of Sakpei.