Residents of Ondo State have been thrown into a frenzy of panic as unknown gunmen attack Farmers and destroy farm settlements at Oluwa Forest Reserve in Odigbo Local Government Area of the State.
News About Nigeria gathered that the gunmen allegedly invaded the settlement and destroyed the cocoa plantations in Temidire.
The aggrieved farmers who lamented about their loss said the armed men invaded their farms and shot sporadically into the air to scare them away.
Speaking on the situation, the chairman of the farmers, Abayomi lsinleye, said that one of the invaders was apprehended and has been handed over to Police Area Command in Ore.
Isinleye alleged that the gunmen were sent by SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited, the company to which the state government allotted their cocoa farm to.
He maintained that 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.”
According to him, the Ondo State High Court had earlier warned the SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited to desist from bulldozing the farmers’ cocoa plantation, but the company went ahead to disobey the order.
He recounted how some of them struggled 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 the police station.
Meanwhile, their lawyer, Tope Temokun, has called on Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to caution those at the hem of affairs of the Ago-Allied Service and save the state from this anarchy of profit-drive by a private company, which has shown desperation in dislodging the farmers from their farmlands at all costs, in disregard of the order of court and pendency of the suit.
The State Police Command, when contacted, confirmed the development and arrest of a suspect.
