Farmers at the Oluwa Forest Reserve in the Odigbo local government area of Ondo State protested on Sunday against the alleged forcible takeover of their farms by a private firm.

The farmers gathered on the busy Benin/Ore highway, blocking the road as they expressed their grievances over the destruction of their farms by SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited, which they claim is working in collaboration with the state government.

The angry farmers, armed with placards with various inscriptions such as ?Ayo Sotinrin Is Using Govt Power On Poor Farmers?; ?Tinubu Save Farmers From Sotinrin?, SAO Belongs To Ayo Sotinrin, MD, Bank of Agric?, ?Rotimi Wemimo Must Go?, Farmers Have Rights To life,? among others.

The farmers said the private firm, allegedly owned by Ayo Sotinrin, the managing director of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), who was appointed in April by President Bola Tinubu, has blocked them, depriving them of their source of living.

They also accused the Senior Special Assistant on Agriculture and Agri-business to Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, Rotimi Akinsola, of aiding the firm.

The leader of the protesting farmers, who spoke with our reporter, Musafiu Irewolede alleged that Sotinrin?s company stormed the farmland and began to evict the farmers from the forest reserves by destroying their plantations.

Irewolede who described the action of the form as illegal, said there was no prior notice by the company, and said the firm claimed that it had bought the farmlands measuring over 10,000 hectares from the state government.

He, however, said that the development was against the court order, restraining the state government and the private firm from evicting the farmers from the forest reserves.

He said ?To our chagrin, on the 28th of April, 2025, while our leaders, including Mr Abayomi Isinleye, were lured to Akure for a supposed peace meeting by Mr Rotimi Wemimo Akinsola, SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited drove its bulldozer into the farm to resume the destruction of our cocoa farms.

?This is under the pretext that it had purchased ten thousand hectares of the State Forest Reserve from the Ondo State Government, the same government that is collecting rents from us every year.

?Since 2019, we have been paying N20,000 per rope to farm here and the truth is that we had been to the court to challenge this act of illegality, and we got an injunction stopping the destruction on the farmland.

?But, they never desist as they continue to float the court order. The government sold our farmlands to SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited, and we are surprised when we saw a bulldozer inside the farm destroying our crops and plantation last week.

?They came with bulldozers to destroy the farmland. It was President Bola Tinubu?s appointee, Ayo Sotinrin, who bought the farmland from the state government and he is being aided by Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa?s senior special assistant, Rotimi Wemimo Akinsola,?

He explained that the state government had been taxing the farmers, who had been on the farmland for over 20 years with multiple levies such as rent fees, money for security, and identity cards, among several others.

He said ?Yet, they?re not too satisfied with that level of taxation. They came with force to evict us from the land. We are not going to take this, and we shall fight against this injustice,?

Also speaking, Felix Adeniyi, expressed sadness over the turn of events on the farm, lamenting the forceful takeover and eviction from the farmland, saying the development would worsen the condition as farmers in the state.

Adeniyi disclosed that no less than 15,000 farmers would be displaced, saying the farmland had been a source of living for many families and households.

Adeniyi said, ?So, we are calling on Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa to remove Mr Rotimi Wemimo as he is self-serving, an enemy of the farmers in Ondo State and is not serving the interest of the government but that of private investors for his own gains.

?We also demand the immediate resignation of Mr Ayo Sotinrin as the MD of Bank of Agriculture for conflict of interest, we call on President Bola Tinubu to remove him if he refuse to resign,? he said.

All efforts to get the reactions of Mr Akinsola proved abortive. A message forwarded to his line was yet to deliver as at the time of filling this report.

But when contacted, Sotinrin denied that SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited was dispossessing farmers in the state of their farmland.

He explained that the company had bought the land allocation, paid all necessary fees, and obtained a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).

While stating that the company had tried to engage with the farmers by offering them compensation, Sotinrin said they were proposing to give them 3000 hectares of land to cultivate.

?We want to put the records straight. We are doing large-scale commercial agriculture, and we need to have our records very straight. Whatever land we want to use, we need to have a Certificate of Occupancy issued by the government authorities on the land,? he said.

He, however, added that upon accessing the land, the company encountered farmers whom he claimed were on the land illegally. (Sunday Tribune)

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