Farmers and residents across five communities in Ilaro, Yewa South Local Council of Ogun State, have petitioned Governor Dapo Abiodun over increasing attacks and encroachment on their farmlands by armed land grabbers.
The communities, Iweke, Idode, Koto-Obo, Ilobi-Omuwa, and Ileba, expressed alarm over what they described as “escalating terror” on their ancestral lands. They warned that the unchecked violence could worsen food insecurity, destroy livelihoods, and displace more families if urgent action is not taken.
In the petition signed by their spokesperson, Pastor Oyero Olurin, the farmers alleged that criminal groups have consistently invaded their farmlands in defiance of Ogun State’s Anti-Land Grabbing Law, despite interventions by the Paramount Ruler of Yewaland, Oba Kehinde Gbadewole Olugbenle.
According to the farmers, the armed groups have assaulted villagers, destroyed crops, including cocoa and citrus, stolen livestock, and intimidated residents, forcing many families who have cultivated the land for more than 150 years to abandon their farms.
“They live in fear, unable to tend to their farms during the crucial planting and harvesting season,” the petition read.
The farmers further alleged that some law enforcement officers were complicit in the crisis, accusing them of unlawfully meddling in land disputes that courts and traditional rulers should handle.
They also claimed that land speculators, working with certain agents and legal practitioners, were using police protection to sell large tracts of farmland without proper documentation illegally.
“Why are these claims only surfacing now when their ancestors never contested these lands?” the communities queried.
The petitioners appealed to Governor Abiodun to direct security agencies to disarm and remove the invading groups, enforce the Anti-Land Grabbing Law, and prosecute those responsible.
They also demanded relief support for displaced families and the creation of a monitoring task force to protect vulnerable farming communities.
Source: The Guardian
Image Credit: Vanguard News
