Ondo Governor, Akeredolu Pushing Us To Go Into Crimes By Taking Our Farmlands, Destroying Our Properties – Idanre Residents Kick
The Idanre community in Ondo State has protested against a new policy introduced by the Governor Rotimi Akeredolu-led government which is turning their lives into a nightmare.
Governor Akeredolu was reported to have ordered the local farmers to vacate the forest reserve.
The existing order was necessitated by the decision of the state government to a concession no less than 40,000 hectares of their land to some few private individuals, including officials of the sitting government.
It was found out that the concessions were prosecuted to service an allegedly obtained loan by the Ondo State government from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The attendant destruction of properties worth billions (without compensation) pushed the local farmers to seek reprieve with the Owa of Idanre and the paramount ruler of the kingdom.
They were forced to troop out in protests after the unsuccessful attempts, dialogues initiated to plead with Governor Akeredolu or even bring him to the consciousness of what might result from such a decision.
One of the protesters, Akinwole Solomon, said, “The farmland actually belongs to Idanre. It isn’t the land of the government. Our forefathers handed over the land to the British as at then. Nobody enters into the government’s land anyhow. We have entered the forests since 1988, farming. Some came in the year 1989. We accommodated non-indigenes and have been there since then.”
“The implication of the government stripping us of our land is for there to be many armed robbers, kidnappers on the streets. Those of us here aren’t up to a quarter of those in the forests. Look at the number of people here.”
“This protest did not involve the use of cutlasses or hoes. We are not fighting the government or anybody. This farm is our heritage and they should leave it for us. We are begging Aketi; he should leave it for us.
“He gets money from four or five different sources through the forest reserve. They are five thousand naira per tonne of cocoa, N500 per bag of cocoa coming out of the reserve, and N300 per palm oil and plantain. We have all the tickets. I have tickets attesting to my paying more than a million.”
“Those who are working in the forests are doing so for survival. There isn’t any government office in Idanre. There is no higher institution, nothing special. All we have is our heritage as a forest reserve. The implication of sending us out of the place is proceeding to carry guns.”
Another protester, Akinseye Adebayo, said, “if you see the farm we are talking about, a large number of people are there, they, their children and wives, a very long chain. Presently in Nigeria, agriculture constitutes about 37.7 percent of our Gross Domestic Product, of which 26.6 percent comes from cocoa.
“All we have here is school and farm. There is no government presence or industry. Idanre’s industry is cocoa. What we are saying is that if the government is claiming there is insecurity in other areas, it isn’t in Idanre.”
“What we are now telling the world, that we want the international community to know is the properties being destroyed will cause hardship for more than 30 million people.”
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Saharareporters, New York
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