Don’t sell Taraba tea plantation, Kataps warns Ishaku

Former chairman, Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Taraba State chapter, Jonah Kataps, has cautioned the Darius Ishaku-led government against selling the Mambilla Beverages company.

The company, which The Guardian learnt, is the biggest tea plantation in West Africa, and produces the popular Highland Tea.

Located in Kakara area of Mambilla Plateau in Sardauna Local Council of the state, the company has reportedly been pencilled in for sale.

In a chat with The Guardian, yesterday, in Jalingo, the former NUT boss urged the government not to attempt selling the people’s heritage.

He challenged the government to single out any project sited in the local council since Ishaku came on board as governor.

“If this government wants to sell the Highland Tea, it should show us one thing it did in Sardauna in over seven years to guarantee that selling the company will be beneficial to the people.

“We will not allow that. I will challenge whoever is contemplating this idea to declare the revenue the company made from the sale of that product in over seven years,” he said.

According to Kataps, individuals and corporate bodies have been queuing up for months, trying to get the Highland Tea, which he described as “one of the best in the world.”

He added: “As far as we are concerned, some people are only claiming credit for the revitalisation of that beverages company.”

“Some of us are aware that the former acting governor, Abubakar Danladi, was the one that released the fund for the turbine and the new machines in the company.”

The tea factory, The Guardian learnt, has been put up for N300 million.