Farmers, represented by the Cocoa and Plantain Farmers Association of Nigeria, have issued an urgent plea to President Bola Tinubu to address the relentless attacks by bandits targeting farmers and their crops.
Expressing their distress, the group highlighted the tragic loss of numerous farmers’ lives and reported cases of abduction following bandit raids nationwide.
Speaking in Akure, the capital of Ondo State, on Monday, Mr. Ayodele Ojo, the National President of the Cocoa and Plantain Farmers Association of Nigeria, decried the ongoing violence against farmers and the destruction of their agricultural lands.
Ojo noted that due to these attacks, many farmers have abandoned their fields out of fear of harm or abduction, leaving their lands vulnerable to occupation by kidnappers and bandits, while security forces appear unable to provide adequate protection.
Ojo said, ” We don’t know what is happening. The insecurity in the land is getting out of hand, we want Mr. President to look into it as a matter of urgency. Farmers cannot access their farms to harvest their farm produce despite the fact that the produce is due for harvest.
“Bandits have harvested some of the farm products, they kidnap our members (farmers) while we also pay ransom for their freedom.
“Some of the hoodlums are now in control of the farms of some of our members, and we are in a very difficult situation now because we are not allowed to visit our farms again. Many of us have not been to the farms for weeks now because of the fear of being kidnapped.
“These people kidnap farmers for ransom and if a farmer fails to pay, he can be killed, We need President Tinubu to come to our aid, we need security agencies to come to our aid, our means of livelihood is threatened and our lives are in danger”
He warned that if the situation is not brought under control, there might be a shortage of food this year and in the future.
The CPFAN President said farmers across the country kicked against the recent instruction by the President, calling on state governors to provide land for grazing for herders, explaining that the creation of grazing zones for herders is an invitation to farmers/herders clash in the country.
He noted that the farmers had faced a lot of challenges and that the Federal Government should not contribute to food insecurity in the land.
He said mandating state governors to give land as grazing zones would be a repeat of the same ineffective strategies employed in the past.
Ojo also called on the National Assembly to look into the call for the grazing zone by Tinubu, appealing to the federal, state, and local governments to allocate more funds to the agriculture sector.
“We believed in the capacity of President Tinubu to solve the problems bedevilling Nigeria but we want to beg him to allocate more money to the agriculture sector in order to find a lasting solution to the challenges of food security looming in the country.
“We totally reject this proposition of President Tinubu on the creation of grazing zones. What we need to do at the moment is to find a solution to the problem of food scarcity and how to encourage farmers to grow more food and not allow another round of destruction,” he stated.
