By Yemi Olakitan
To ensure continued farming activities and promote food security in the state, Afero/Itoikin Epe Commercial Farmers Cooperative has urged the Lagos state government (LASG) to intervene in an alleged land invasion by security operatives and its attendant harassment.
The chairman of the cooperative, Wale Oyekoya made the call at a peaceful protest at the Lagos State House of Assembly, on Wednesday, January 10.
The protesters hoisted several placards with various inscriptions such as: “No To Military Invasion, Farmers Are Human, No Farmers No Nation”, among others, Sanwo-Olu Compensate Us, were some of the inscriptions on display during the protest.
Oyekoya said the farmers suffered a series of human rights abuses from security operatives who invaded their farmlands in Itoikin, Epe area of Lagos State.
According to him, over 300 hectares of land were invaded thereby causing huge losses and rendering the farmers jobless.
“This development has greatly and negatively impacted our only source of livelihood which was farming hence disrupting the agricultural sector of the economy.
He recalled that in 2014, the Lagos state government sent a letter to Bama Farms Ltd. about plans to relocate the farm to pave the way for Lekki International Airport.
Oyekoya stated that he and other farmers joined hands to engage the late Rotimi Williams, SAN, and were eventually compensated and relocated to Eluju Mowo/Mutaku area, Ibeju, Epe in 2015 by Lagos State former Gov. Raji Fashola.
He, however, noted that they started having problems from the landowners popularly known as ‘Omoonile’ and the hooligans immediately they took over the farms.
“Thugs will come and disturb our farms destroying our crops and stealing our livestock and as time went by, they brought thugs and estate developers to destabilise us.
“The estate developers started building on our farmlands and we reported all this to the government through the governor, Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Survey, Commerce and Justice with no response or action from them.
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“The Omonile grew wings by harassing and threatening us with hired security operatives with frivolous charges and lawsuits on a land that was allocated to us by the Lagos state government.
“The truth is, we have been through hell and hardship and LASG turned a deaf ear to our problems,” he said.
This development, according to him, was reported to the Governor of Lagos’s office, the Attorney General’s office, the Commissioner and the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and nothing was done.
This, he said, gave the “mobile” and estate developers more power to harass, threaten and disturb their farm businesses.
“A series of attacks was done on our farm activities unabated without the government intervention to help us on the land that was allocated to us.
“We do not want to believe there is some collaboration between the government agencies, ministries, the `mobile’ and the estate developers against the farmers.
“Recently, precisely five weeks ago, December 2023 the military came with full force beating people up and sending people away from their properties as farmers were not exempted.
“Bama Farms with about 100 hectares of land is the hardest hit as his farms were taken over by the military, the fences broken, crops and properties bulldozed and all its farm workers have disappeared out of fear and intimidation thereby affecting other farming activities.
“Why did they refuse to issue us a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) on the land allocated to us? Why did they refuse to engage the farmers when the military invaded our farms over a month ago?”
Oyekoya appealed to the Lagos state government to provide adequate compensation, immediate relocation with C of O and sort out payment on the lands.
Addressing the protesters, the Deputy Majority Leader of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adedamola Kasumu who spoke on behalf of the Speaker assured that the matter was attended to urgently.
While reiterating the commitment of the Speaker to the welfare of the people of the state, Kasumu thanked the protesters for being peaceful.
