Scores of aggrieved farmers from the Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State on Sunday shut down the Ore-Benin-Lagos expressway to protest the alleged forceful takeover of their farmlands by a private firm.

Peoples Gazette learnt that the private firm, SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited, is owned by Ayo Sotinrin, the managing director of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), who President Bola Tinubu recently appointed.

The farmers converged on the NIROWI plantation junction and prevented vehicular movement to register their displeasure over the eviction from the farmlands by Mr Sotinrin’s company.

They displayed leaves and carried placards bearing different 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.”

They alleged that Sotinrin’s company, which is being fronted by the Senior Special Assistant to the Ondo State Governor on Agriculture and Agri-business, Rotimi Akinsola, brought a bulldozer and destroyed their farmland, measuring over 10,000 hectares.

A spokesman for the protesters, Mustapha Irewolade, said the destruction was against a court order restraining the government and private firms from evicting the farmers.

Mr Irewolade accused Messrs Sotinrin and Akinsola of threatening the farmers with arrest for speaking up against the eviction.

“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. It was President Bola Tinubu’s appointee, Ayo Sotinrin, who bought the farmland, and he is being aided by Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s senior special assistant, Rotimi Wemimo Akinsola,” he said.

He added that the state government had been taxing them on the farmland with multiple levies such as rent fees, money for security, and identity cards.

Another farmer, Felix Adeniyi, who said about 15,000 farmers would be affected, lamented that the forceful takeover and eviction would worsen their condition.

“We are appealing to the federal and state governments to intervene on this matter. We also are begging President Tinubu and Governor Aiyedatiwa to help us,” he said.

Reacting, Mr Sotinrin denied that SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited was dispossessing farmers of their farmland, stating that the company had processed the land allocation, paid all necessary fees, and obtained a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).

Mr Sotintin said the company had tried to engage with the farmers by offering them compensation and was proposing to give them 3,000 hectares of land.

“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. 

However, he added that upon accessing the land, the company encountered farmers he claimed were on the land illegally.

A message forwarded to Mr Akinsola was yet to be delivered at the time of this report.