Gunmen attack cocoa farmers in Ondo, one arrested

Gunmen, allegedly acting on behalf of an agro-allied company have attacked and destroyed farm settlements at Oluwa Forest Reserve, in Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State.

According to reports, the gunmen allegedly invaded the settlement and destroyed the cocoa plantations in Temidire.

The farmers, while speaking to reporters on Wednesday in Akure, the state capital, said that the armed men, who invaded their farms shot sporadically into the air to scare them away.

The chairman of the farmers’ body, Abayomi lsinleye, disclosed that one of the invaders was apprehended and handed over to Police Area Command in Ore.

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According to Isinleye, the gunmen were sent by SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited, the company to which the state government allotted their cocoa farm to.

“Despite a court order restraining the Agro-Allied Company from taking over the land until the determination of the suit instituted by the farmers, the firm has continued to clear the plantations”, Isinleye said.

He also recalled that the existing interim injunction which was granted by Justice Aderemi Adegoroye of Ondo State High Court sitting in Ondo, restrained all respondents in the suit, including SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited, to stop bulldozing the farmers’ cocoa plantations.

He said that the operator of the bulldozer, who demanded for the court ruling when confronted by the farmers, urged the farmers to contact the management of SAO Agro-Allied Services before they could leave the farmlands.

Isinleye further stated that some of them had to struggle with the gunmen and were able to snatch two guns, a pump action and an air rifle, and one of the armed men was apprehended and taken to police station.

The legal counsel to the farmers, Tope Temokun, who also spoke to reporters, called on Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, to “call whoever was in charge of SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited to order to save the state from this anarchy of profit-drive by a private company, which has shown over desperation in dislodging the farmers from their farmlands at all costs, in disregard of order of court and pendency of suit.”

Confirming the development, the State Police Command, said a suspect was arrested.

The state command’s spokesperson, Funmi Odunlami said: “The two parties had been invited by the Area Commander in Ore to know the true position of things as investigation is still ongoing on the matter.”

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