Food Crisis Looms in S’West as Kidnappers Target Farmers

• Farmers’ association seeks govt intervention

•Monarchs, petrol dealers major victims in Ekiti

Gboyega Akinsanmi, Victor Olakitan in Ado Ekiti and Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

Farmers have been under serial attacks in all Southwest states, mainly Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo, fuelling fear of acute food shortage if the state governments do not intervene proactively, THISDAY has learnt.

Across the geo-political zone, findings revealed, farmers are abandoning their farmsteads, plantations, orchards and processing factories amid the increasing spate of armed invasion, kidnapping and destruction of farmland by herdsmen.
Oyo, for instance, has become the epicentre of banditry and kidnappings with over 30 persons, especially farmers abducted at different agrarian communities in Ibadan, Fiditi and Ibarapaland Local Government Areas (LGAs).

While some victims have regained their freedom, according to THISDAY findings, they were not released until their families paid millions of naira in ransom to their abductors, who were mainly herdsmen.
On March 29, for instance, further findings revealed that gunmen invaded a farmstead in Oluyole LGA, Oyo State, kidnapping at least three farmers including a couple while working on their farms.
The findings showed that the couple were abducted inside their farm located at Alabameji, an agrarian community in Oluyole LGA while the third farmer was abducted from Soka, a community once known for ritual killing in Ibadan.

On March 17, according to our findings, gunmen invaded another farmstead in Fiditi, Afijio LGA, Oyo State. While the gunmen kidnapped a security guard, they killed one person during the invasion.
In Ekiti, the abduction of a retired officer in the United States Army and an agricultural entrepreneur, Major Jide Ijadare brought global attention to the armed invasion of farmlands.

Ijadare, an agricultural entrepreneur, was abducted on September 16, 2020 in his oil processing company located at Ijan Ekiti, the hometown of Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
While the armed invaders killed one of his staff members in the oil-processing firm, Ijadare was not let go until a ransom of N20 million was paid for his freedom,
In Ikere Ekiti, also, another commercial farmer, Mr. Isaac Agbanigo, was kidnapped on April 3 and his family members paid ransom to the tune of N3 million.

In Ogun State, reports revealed that agrarian communities coterminous to Nigeria’s borders with Benin Republic were invaded and the dwellers, who were largely farmers, displaced from their ancestral roots.
The affected communities, according to findings, were Ohunbe, Asa, Agbon, Isuku, Kodera, Iselu, Iyana Meta, Ibeku, Eegelu, Ipobe, Igbo-Oko and Iganna.
Due to the attacks by armed herdsmen, further findings showed that at least 5,000 fled to Eegelu, Ipobe, Igana, Ibore, Owode-Benin and Iga all located in Benin Republic, abandoning their farmlands and farm produces.

Likewise, farmers in Obasooto Farm Settlement, ldanre LGA, Ondo State came under armed invasion on January 28. While there was no record of kidnapping, according to reports, herdsmen invaded and destroyed farmlands and farm produces.
One of the victims, Pa Idowu Olatuja recounted that the farmers just resumed farming activities on January 28 to find out that herdsmen had invaded and destroyed their farmlands and farm produce the night before.

Olatuja, also a physically challenged octogenarian, said all the crops on their farms were eaten up by the cows led by the herders and millions of naira invested on the farms vanished just in one night.
Also, Okeji Farm Settlement in Atoka-Iju, a community under Akure North LGA, came under attack on February 3, thus leading to the abduction of a commercial farmer, Mr. Solomon Akinmeji.
Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), according to our findings, attempted to abort Akinmeji’s abduction to no avail. A member of the congress was shot dead while they were pursuing the bandits who kidnapped Akinmeji in the farm settlement.

Osun, like other Southwest states, have witnessed an unprecedented upsurge in the cases of kidnapping, targeting farmers, farmlands and commuters, especially along Akure-Ilesha expressway and around boundaries with Ekiti and Kwara States.
Concerned with armed attacks on farmers, the Association of Farmers of Nigeria (AFAN) yesterday raised the alarm, describing it as a threat to food security objectives of all the state governments in the geo-political zone..

In an interview with THISDAY, the Chairman of Oyo State AFAN, Mr. John Olateru warned against imminent shortage of food in the state, saying farmers could no longer go to their farms because they were afraid of armed invasion.

Olateru revealed that farmers “have become the main targets of kidnappers. Farmers are kidnapped on a daily basis. Those who attempted to disguise themselves to go to their farms were not lucky because they too fell victims.”

Olateju, also AFAN’s Assistant National Secretary, said farmers in Ibarapa, one of the largest agrarian areas in the Southwest, were the most affected.

He disclosed that most farmers in most agrarian communities in different parts of the geo-political “are now abandoning their farms,” citing the case of a farmer, who according to him, was kidnapped on his farm in Ibarapa North LGA.

He said: “It is quite unfortunate that farmers in the state have become targets of kidnappers such that they are being kidnapped on a daily basis, the situation is so terrible that farmers are now afraid to go to their farms.

“I am afraid if the situation is not addressed as quickly as possible, there would be food shortage in the state and the consequences of this is better imagined,” AFAN’s scribe said with grave concern for farmers in the geo-political zone.