*Says defection story a farce

Claim that a documentary on Shonga Farm won the Agriculture and Green Economics category in the 2013 edition of the Deauville Green Award (France) conflicts with details from the award’s organisers, Mohammed Dele Belgore's media aide, Rafiu Ajakaye, said on Thursday.

Belgore, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was Kwara ACN governorship candidate in the 2011 poll.

Ajakaye also dismissed as a sham and diversionary reports that some Belgore supporters defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), insisting some fellows were paid to disguise as ACN/Belgore supporters to satisfy PDP's obsession with publicity.

"We have since discovered that PDP and its government can go to any length, including concocting mindless lies, to satisfy their obsession for media attention," he said.

When you place the defection story against the claim by the leader of the 'defectors' that they belonged to MDB Forum, the whole thing falls flat because there is nothing like the MDB Forum.

"But we are not surprised. Just last weekend, the PDP-led government shamelessly issued a statement claiming that a documentary on Shonga Farm had won the 'Agriculture and Green Economics category in the 2013 edition of the Deauville Green Award.'

"We have since found out that this claim falls within the series of lies for which this government is notorious. The award the film on Shonga won was 'the Grand Prix for Best Audio-Visual Environmental Institutional Policy', not the Grand Prix in the Agriculture and Green Economics as claimed! And we ask, why this mindless falsehood?"

The Kwara State Government and Senator Bukola Saraki had last weekend issued separate statements celebrating the award, which a Kwara State Government’s spokesman, Dr. Femi Akorede, claimed was “further validation of Mr Saraki’s unparalleled vision for agro-reform.”

Akorede had claimed in a statement he circulated to the local media that the documentary, titled “A Farm for Africa”, won the “Grand Prix Award in the Agriculture and Green Economics. The film was produced by a British film producer, Matt Reid, and directed by Ed Wardle.

Ajakaye added: "But a communiqué showing winners in the various categories of the award, issued in French, by the organisers’ press relations officers, Camille Hewitt and Razika Baa, contradicted the claims by both the state government and Saraki. According to the communiqué, accessible through http://www.deauvillegreenawards.com/images/presse/CP%20DGA_Palmares_2013.pdf, A Farm for Africa actually won the Grand Prix for Best Audio-Visual Environmental Institutional Policy.

"The Grand Prix in the Agriculture and Green Economics was won jointly by a film titled 'New Vision for Agriculture', directed by Simon Waldron and produced by Lonelyleap (sponsored by the World Economc Forum) and a documentary called Global gâchis, Le Scandale Mondial Du Gaspillage Aimentaire, which was directed by Olivier Lemaire and produced by CAPA Televisions.

"The English version of the communiqué titled Palmarès DEAUVILLE GREEN AWARDS 2013, obtained from the organisers, confirmed the information in the communiqué issued in French.

"Indeed, arguments over whether or not the 12-minute documentary on Shonga farm won the award had at the weekend dominated the social media network, Twitter, as some Kwarans faulted Akorede’s claim and posted links to back their claims.

"Akorede, using a twitter handle @phemmmy, in turn posted another link (http://www.deauvillegreenawards.com/index.php/en/deaville-green-awards-short-list) which listed A Farm for Africa among the finalists (but not the winner) in the Agriculture and Green Economics category.

"Films listed among the finalists in the same category included the two winners mentioned above and others like Eko Reporter Episode 12 and 2; Et mon Job; Fischer in der Krise? derKmapf um das A-kosiegel; Footprints; and La mort est dans le Pra.

"When told that being among the finalists does not necessarily make the film on Shonga the winner, Akorede quietly withdrew from the debate, further provoking flurry of reactions from various twitter handles who accused the state government of lying to the world about the award."

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