‘Protesting Ondo Farmers Are Illegal Occupants Of Forest Reserve’

The Ondo State government has said the farmers in Oluwa Forest Reserve in the Odigbo council area, who protested over the forceful takeover and destruction of their farmlands, are illegal occupants.
Some farmers had recently protested the illegal destruction of their plantations by a private firm SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited, in collaboration with the state government.

The aggrieved farmers, armed with placards with various inscriptions, blocked the Lagos/Ore highway and alleged that the private firm forcibly evicted the farmers from the forest reserves by destroying their crops.

Reacting, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, Prince Ebenezer Adeniyan, disclosed that many of the aggrieved farmers currently occupying parts of the Oluwa Forest Reserve (OA3A) have breached existing agreements and exceeded designated land allocation parameters.

Adeniyan said, “Some have encroached into restricted forest zones without authorisation, while others have failed to comply with the agreed land use terms, posing serious environmental and security concerns.”

Adeniyan further described the allegation that Mr. Ayo Sotinrin, the managing director of the Bank of Agriculture, is using a private firm to seize farmlands as malicious, unfounded, and an apparent attempt at character assassination.

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He stated that “SAO Agro-Allied Services, on its part, has been operating under a Public-Private Partnership arrangement approved by the state since 2021. The firm’s acquisition and development of agro-industrial zones have followed due process and are under full government oversight. None of its activities involves the unlawful takeover of legally secured farms.”

While saying that at no time, whether during electioneering or otherwise, did Governor Aiyedatiwa make any promise to support illegal occupants of government land or forest reserves, Adeniyan noted that claims suggesting that the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Agribusiness, Rotimi Wemimo Akinsola, involving in land grabbing are “not only false but politically driven and entirely at variance with the facts.