Gunmen on Wednesday attacked and destroyed farm settlements at Oluwa Forest Reserve, in Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State.
It was discovered that the gunmen allegedly broke into the community and destroyed Temidire’s cocoa plantations.
The farmers told reporters in Akure that the armed men who had invaded their farms had shot intermittently into the air to frighten them off.
Abayomi Isinleye, the farmers’ chairman, reported that one of the invaders had been captured and turned over to the Police Command in Ore.
Isinleye claimed that SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited, the business to which the State Government granted ownership of their cocoa farm, was the one who sent the gunmen.
He said: “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”.
He recalled that the existing interim injunction which was granted by Justice Aderemi Adegoroye of Ondo State High Court, restrained all respondents in the suit, including SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited, to stop bulldozing the farmers’ cocoa plantations.
The chairman went on to say that the farmers should get in touch with SAO Agro-Allied Services management before they leave the farmlands, as the bulldozer operator had demanded the court ruling when the farmers confronted him.
He claimed that after fighting with the gunmen, a few of them managed to take two weapons—an air rifle and a pump action rifle—and that one of the armed men was captured and brought to the police station.
Furthermore, Tope Temokun, their attorney, addressed Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, requesting that he “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”.
Meanwhile, the State Police Command, when contacted, confirmed the development and arrest of a suspect.
The State commands 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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