Travellers on the busy Lagos-Ore expressway were stranded for hours on Sunday following the protest by farmers of the Oluwa Forest in Odigbo Local Government, Ondo State.
The farmers who blocked the road during the protest, kicked against their forceful eviction from their farmlands by SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited, allegedly owned by Ayo Sotinrin, who was recently appointed by President Bola Tinubu as the Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA).
According to the protesting farmers, the private firm is being aided by the Senior Special Assistant on Agriculture and Agri-business to Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, Wemimo Akinsola.
Armed with placards with various inscriptions such as “Rotimi Wemimo Must Go”, “Ayo Sotinrin Is Using Govt Power On Poor Farmers, “Rotimi Wemimo Must Go, “Farmers Have Rights To Life, “Tinubu Save Farmers From Sotinrin”, and “SAO Belongs To Ayo Sotinrin, MD, Bank of Agric”, among others, the farmers berated the firm over the manner in which they were evicted from the farmlands.
Musafiu Irewolede, who spoke on behalf of the farmers, described the action as illegal, stating that the company claimed it had bought the farmlands measuring over 10,000 hectares from the state government.
“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 continued to flout the court order.
“They (SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited) came with a bulldozer 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.”
Irewolede disclosed that the state government had been collecting tax from the farmers who had been on the farmland for over 20 years. He said the farmers have been paying multiple levies, such as fees for rent, security, and identity cards, among several others.
Another farmer, Felix Adeniyi, stressed that no less than 15,000 farmers would be displaced by the development and 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.
“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 refuses to resign.”
When contacted, Sotinrin, who denied that SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited was dispossessing farmers in the state of their farmland, explained that the company had processed the land allocation, paid all necessary fees, and obtained a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).
