Ondo farmers lament: Herders drove us away, built their huts on our farmlands
It is tales of woe from farmers across Ondo State following the activities of herdsmen who have not only destroyed their sources of livelihood by their incessant attacks on their farmlands but also annoyingly raped their wives and daughters in their presence.
They lamented that they have consistently been victims of herders for the past five years, precisely since 2016.
The farmers from across the three senatorial districts of the state, almost in tears, narrated their nightmares to Sunday Vanguard. Some of them claimed to have taken loans to put together their farms, saying everything went down the drains, no thanks to the rampaging activities of herders.
The Vice Chairman of the Ondo State Agricultural Commodities Association (OSACA), the umbrella body for farmers engaged in agricultural commodities in the state, Evans Shado, whose farm is located in lpe-Akoko, Ondo North, narrated, “My problem with herdsmen started in 2016. One day I received a call that my farm at Ipe-Akoko was under attack. Loan “I rushed down there and saw that everything was gone. “But two of the herders who did it were later apprehended and taken to the police station.
“The attackers actually destroyed my 10 hectares oil palm field. The same thing was done to my farm when it was razed in 2018. “In 2019, the association I belong to had a rice farm at Uso in Owo Local Government Area. “I was the supervisor. We took a loan of about N10 million from the Federal Government. When it was time to harvest, these intruders came to destroy everything. “We reported to government officials including the SSA to the Governor on Security, Alhaji Dojumo, and the Chairman of Miyetti Allah in the state, Alhaji Bello.
“The cows were arrested but they were later released while two of the herders who were apprehended are still in custody. “The case is ongoing since 2019. “With everything destroyed, the bank has been on our neck for us to pay back the loan.
We took insurance people, CBN officials and everybody there to see things for themselves but they’re still asking us to pay back. “But if such had happened in the North, I’m sure they would have reimbursed affected farmers to go back to enable them continue in business”. In 2020, after they had put the sad incident of 2019 behind them, Shado said some of them went back to farm by borrowing more than N3 million. “This time I farmed six hectares of rice.
I was expecting millions of naira from the job I did. But when harvest time came, these people came again. They destroyed everything. We reported the case to Amotekun and they came and helped us. “They apprehended some of the attackers but only a meager amount was given to our group because we are so many.
“They gave us N1 million. How will that amount assist us on a farm we had spent millions of naira on? “Just before January this year, my farm was attacked again. They uprooted all my cassava for their cows. On January 2, I took Amotekun operatives to my farm again. “Before you can go to the farm in my community in Ipe-Akoko, you’ve to go in the company of six to ten people because one might not come back alive if you decided to go alone. “Formerly, I’m a disappointed, discouraged and an undeterred farmer but, now, I’m for revolution because, last year, I went to the SSA and told him I wanted to be a terrorist because only terrorists and bandits are respected in our nation.
They’ve destroyed this nation. “I’ve three children in the university. Where do they want me to get money to educate my children who will be looking at me that I call myself a farmer and suffering while others are enjoying. “So we are at war in this country. It is no longer peace, it is revolution. Revolution is spontaneous and I know it’ll start one day. “I’m a pastor but this time around, it is the prayers of the brethren that are sustaining me because I can do and undo. If you talk you will die, if you don’t talk you will die. “They have killed me while still living”. Vanguard
