Cocoa Farmers Protest Against Alleged Sale Of Farmland To Chinese Firm By Ondo Govt

Cocoa Farmers Protest Against Alleged Sale Of Farmland To Chinese Firm By Ondo Govt

Some aggrieved cocoa farmers in Ofosu, Idanre Local Government Area of Ondo State have staged a protest to lament about  the alleged sale of their farmland to a Chinese company by the state government.

The farmers who embarked on a protest to vent their anger over the sales of the farmland barricaded the busy Lagos/Benin expressway.

Chief Kazeem Akinrimisi, the Sasare of Ofosu, said during the protest that he had been farming in the area for over 20 years.

According to Akinrimisi, farmers had been paying their dues to agencies of state government for cultivating on the government reserve for years.

The protesters armed with placards of various inscriptions appealed to the government to consider their plight instead of allowing foreigners take over their farms.

While stating that no fewer than 25,000 were captured in data registration of farmers by the state government, Akirimisi, said he paid N6million as his dues for farming on the land to the state internally generated revenue agency in 2021.

He appealed to the state government to allow the farmers acquire the land instead of giving foreigners the avenue to enslave them, maintaining that they had been cooperating with the government directives since 2019 without any misunderstanding between the two parties.