On Sunday, some farmers in Ondo State protested the alleged takeover of their farmlands in Oluwarotimi Forest Reserve (OA3A) Odigbo Local Government Area of the state by a private agro-allied company.
The farmers, who blocked the Lagos-Ore expressway, disrupting the traffic flow, claimed that the firm SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited, in collaboration with the state government, was destroying their plantations.
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They branded leaves and carried placards bearing 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”, and “Farmers Have Rights to Life,” among others.
The displaced farmers also accused Rotimi Akinsola, the senior special assistant on agriculture and agri-business to Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, of aiding the firm.
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Speaking on behalf of the protesters, one of the farmers, Musafiu Irewolede, alleged that the company stormed their farmland and began to evict them from the forest reserves by destroying their plantations.
Mr Irewolede described the action as illegal, saying that the firm claimed it had bought the farmlands measuring over 10,000 hectares from the state government.
He noted that the development was against the court order, restraining the state government and the private firm from evicting them from the forest reserves.
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“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 under the pretext that it had purchased 10,000 hectares of the State Forest Reserve from the Ondo State Government, the same government that is collecting rents from us every year,” he said.
“Since 2019, we have been paying N20,000 per rope to farm here, and the truth is that we have been in court to challenge this act of illegality, and we got an injunction stopping the destruction of farmland. But they never desisted as they continued to flout the court order. The government sold our farmlands to SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited, and we were surprised when we saw bulldozers inside the farm destroying our crops and plantation last week.
“They came with bulldozers to destroy the farmland. President Bola Tinubu’s appointee, Ayo Sotinrin, bought the farmland from the state government, and he is being aided by Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s senior special assistant, Rotimi Wemimo Akinsola.”
Mr Irewolede added that the state government has been collecting multiple levies, such as rent fees, security money, and identity cards, from the farmers for over 20 years.
“Yet, they are 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,” he stated.
Another farmer, Felix Adeniyi, lamented that the forceful takeover and eviction from the farmland could worsen their condition.
Mr Adeniyi, who observed that the development would displace at least 15,000 farmers, said the farmland had been a source of living for many families and households.
“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,” he said.
“We also demand the immediate resignation of Mr Ayo Sotinrin as the MD of the Bank of Agriculture for conflict of interest. We call on President Bola Tinubu to remove him if he refuses to resign.”
Efforts to obtain Mr Akinsola’s reactions were unsuccessful. At the time of writing, a message sent to his mobile telephone had yet to be delivered.
But when contacted, Mr Sotinrin denied that SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited was dispossessing farmers in the state of their farmland.
He explained that the company had processed the land allocation, paid all necessary fees, and obtained a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).
Stating that the company had tried to engage with the farmers by offering them compensation, Mr Sotinrin said they proposed giving them 3000 hectares of land to cultivate.
“We want to put the records straight. We are doing large-scale commercial agriculture and 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 added.
However, The managing director added that upon accessing the land, the company encountered farmers he claimed were on the land illegally.
Not first protest
This is not the first time farmers have protested the destruction of their tree crops by private investors.
The contention started as soon as the state government allowed the investing companies to commence operations.
Controversies over the displacement of farmers in the government forest reserves have become recurring issues since the state government launched its Red Gold Project in 2021.
The project is an oil palm development initiative inaugurated by the late governor of the state, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.
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Mr Akeredolu inaugurated the Red Gold Project by inaugurating a privately owned Gas Inland LPG Terminal and Oil Palm Mills in the Ore Industrial Park in the Odigbo Local Government Area of the state.
The Red Gold Project is a partnership between the state government and the National Oil Palm Producing Association of Nigeria (NPPAN).
It was gathered that the government initially planned to use 60,000 hectares of land for the project and create 500,000 jobs. But in 2022, when the governor inaugurated another farm in Ore by JB Farms Limited, he said over 70,000 hectares had been allocated to six companies under the Red Gold Project. He said 10,000 hectares were approved for JB Farms in Ore.
“This is a farm that we are projecting to stand on a total land area of 10,000 hectares and more, and this is just the first one, and I believe it will be more than this,” Mr Akeredolu had said.
“As of today, we have given out 70,000 hectares to investors, about five or six of them.”
PREMIUM TIMES reported that by the end of 2022, the state government had expanded the project to 80,000 hectares.
Mr Akeredolu died on 27 December 2023, and since then, the farmers have been crying out against the land sales to the companies whose bulldozers were deployed to bring down every tree standing on the land to pave the way for the projects.
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