• Agro Park, other farms under siege as herders set farms ablaze
Incessant abductions by kidnappers and destructive activities of herders in some parts of Ogun State have forced farmers and agribusiness investors to abandon cultivation and food production-related activities, posing dangers to efforts of the state government to attract agro-allied investors to the state.
Therefore, an agricultural investment company with a major farm asset at Ijale, in Abeokuta North Local Government Area of the state, Agro Park Development Company and other farm owners have called on all stakeholders to intervene in the situation around farm settlements and communities caused by threats from bandits, herdsmen and kidnappers.
The company’s Managing Director, Mr. Sola Olunowo and other farmers, as well as community leaders raised the alarm at a press conference in Abeokuta recently.
They said: “For over a year now, it has been impossible to operate in our farms. The entire Abeokuta North area has been taken over by these hoodlums who have continued to terrorise the communities and have disrupted farming activities.”
Olunowo said his farm and others’ had suffered incessant attacks, making a lot of farmers and farm hands to abandon their farms.
“The situation has deteriorated now to the point that it is impossible to carry out any activity at our various farms. The villagers cannot go out of their homes to perform daily business and trade activities and everyone is living in fear.
“Apart from Ijale, other communities within Rounda, Alamala, Ilewo, Ibara Orile, Olorunda, Imala and Soyoye have gruesome experiences in the hands of the kidnappers,” he lamented, calling on the state government to urgently intervene.
The farm investor added that as the farming season was approaching, farmers did not want their farms to be unutilised as it was in 2021, making intervention by the government, the police and military formations imperative.
Confirming the situation, a consultant to a poultry farm at Orile, a village in the area, Bashir Taiwo, said despite communal efforts and presence of military barracks, insecurity still persists, calling on the government to intervene.
Another farmer and tractor service provider at Ayetoro area in the same local government, Ibrahim Gbadamosi, said kidnapping and other forms of insecurity were prevalent before communities mobilised vigilante groups. He added that police and other para-military patrols had also reduced the frequency of attacks.
However, a farm worker at Ijale, Gideon Afolabi, said he narrowly escaped being kidnapped about three weeks ago, as his cousin was attacked shortly after he left the farm. He commended local hunters for helping to improve on the situation, but called on the government to step in so that people can access their farms as the planting season draws nearer.
A leader of farmers at Ijale Orile, Razaak Olugboso, of Gaia Farms, disclosed that apart from kidnappings, herders had started setting farms ablaze so that their animals could have grasses to graze as the rainfalls began.
He said his farm lost over 200 acres of cashew and oil palm plantations and cassava to a recent inferno caused intentionally by herders.
Olugboso added that a petition had been sent to Honourable Modupe Mujota, member, Ogun State House Assembly, following an initial notification sent to her to intervene in the crisis through the instrumentality of the state government.
“Today, we lost over 200 acres of cashew, palm tree farm and cassava farms to inferno set on our farms by Fulani herdsmen. The farm is in Ijale Orile, in Abeokuta North, Ward 13, Olorunda Ijale, Gaia Farm and Lukotun Cares Farm,” Olugboso said in a message sent to the lawmaker and shared with The Guardian.
