Gilbert Ekugbe
The National President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Mr. Kabir Ibrahim has stated that Nigeria’s aspiration to attain food security would remain a wild goose chase until insecurity in food producing states of the country is addressed by the federal government.
Ibrahim said that the present administration must prioritise investments in safeguarding the lives of farmers who are being forced at gunpoints to pay certain amount of money before they could gain access to their farmlands.
In a chat with newsmen in Lagos, Ibrahim declared that tougher times await the country as far as food production is concerned and warned that prices of food would continue to skyrocket if farmers continued to pay in order to get access to their farmlands.
He noted that the association has been inundated with series of complaints from local farmers, mostly from the North-east and North-west part of the country about ransom payments to armed bandits before being allowed access to their farms either for planting or harvesting crops.
He stated that hunger and hardships would continue to be the order of the day in Nigeria if this obnoxious trend is not checkmated because Nigerian farmers have been overstretched and some of them are paying the ultimate price just to put foods on the tables for Nigerians.
Ibrahim said: “The government cannot say they are not privy to this information of ransom payments being made to armed bandits by local farmers as the association had written series of letters to all the concerned authorities in government and security services on this development and nothing is being done to protect the Nigerian farmers willing to go to the farms to harvest crops for sales and feed Nigerians from the hands of these armed bandits.” Manufacturers Threaten to Halt Supply, Distribution over Insecurity
