By Funmilayo Oke
Farmers in Ijaye, Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo ,on Tuesday morning staged a protest against the continuous destruction of their farmlands and crops by suspected Fulani herdsmen in the town.
They gathered at the Governor’s Office at Secretariat Ibadan, carrying various placards, chanting songs and expressing their grievances on the alarming increase in the destruction of their farm produce by the suspected Fulani herdsmen.
It was gathered that one of the farmers’ arm got amputated with herdsmen reportedly herded their cattle into the farms of the settlers without respect for the farmer’s feelings and destroy farm produce.
The Chairman of the Ijaye Farm Settlement Association, Mr Taiwo Tunde Tajudeen, expressed reservation over the state of their farmlands.
While asserting that the state belongs to all and they have nowhere to run to, Tajudeen emphasized securing their lives and property is paramount.
Tajudeen said:“On behalf of all farmers from Ijaye Farm Settlement, the land hired to us for farming, we have discovered that the invasion of Fulanis and their cattles is on increase. And they are armed with sophisticated weapons, the minimum of these weapons is AK-47. We cannot confront them, they have invaded our land and crops. They have even started raping our wives, on the farm.
“Three days ago, a farmer who resisted the invasion of his farm got his arm amputated. He is in the hospital right now. Must we continue to fold our arms and become slaves on our own land? We are hereby appealing through you sir, to the Excellency to look into our plight, we are submitting this SOS letter to you, with the hope that it will get to His Excellency”.
He added that if no action is taken within two weeks, mobilization will take place again.
Also speaking, Yakubu Olarewaju, the Secretary to the Ijaye Farm Settlement Association, said:”We are here to come and plead with the government to come to our aid. We have had it on reliable record that the headers are fully armed and they are concentrating on all angles of the farm settlement and as the resources are dwindling.
“They tend to attack our members, so we need the government to come to our aid. They told us specifically that Ijaye farm settlement is going to be for crop farming only we were not allowed to rear even our common goats. So why should there be concentration of cows in that axis? It shouldn’t be. It is going to cause problems. We are having 25 acres of land as a minimum holding for each of our members and that is enough to produce nothing less than 200 tonnes of maize and that is if we multiply it, you will realize that, it can feed thousands of people. So why should they neglect us?
“As the case is, the northern part of the country is withholding its food resources they are bringing to us. This is our own way to provide food security for the South-western region”.
Continuing, he said:”For the past one week, the incident has transformed from being just the destruction of property to the threats of attacks and attempt on our lives. We have a member that had his arm amputated by Fulani herders. All we know is that this is the survival of the fittest. They are leaving their own region to come here and siphon our own resources. Are we going to fold our arms and do nothing? The government said there is an anti-grazing task force committee comprising oMACMAN, DSS, so far, all we have seen is zero action.
“We have witnessed every destruction that has happened on our farms and have written so many letters. But till today, nothing has been done. All we are asking the government to do is to come and dislodge the Fulani from our land”.
However, Oyo State Government through the Executive Assistant to the Governor on security matters, Sunday Odukoya, assured them that the government would heed their cries.
He added that normalcy would return to the town in no time.
Odukoya said:“ I am going to make sure that the letter is given to the authorities. I assure that they will look into it and necessary actions will be taken. The government will do something as regard their demands”.
