About 60 farmers, who are indigenes of Kwara State, farming in Oyinbogbeni village in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State, have been displaced by armed militants in the area.Speaking with Community News in Ilorin at the weekend, the head of Kwara farmers in the area, Mr. Oluwaseun Atanda, said the hoodlums who always dressed in Army uniform, had invaded their settlement, burnt 30 of their houses, taken possession of their farmlands, farm produce, killed and kidnapped some of the farmers.Atanda, who said the armed youth had been intimidating the farmers and threatening to take possession of their farmlands before the invasion on November 29, 2011, gave names of those killed by the hoodlums as Lukman Olaniyan, Wasiu Olagunju, Hassan Lawal and Akeem Adeoye, adding that some of the farmers who sustained injuries were even taken away by the hoodlums.He also said that the hoodlums returned on November 30 to burn more of their houses, carted away about six tonnes of processed cocoa and set six of their motorcycles ablaze.Atanda, who said the Kwara farmers and other farmers who were non-indigenes of the area, paid N700, 000 every year, since 1995, to the community head of the area as tax for using the farmland to plant crops such as cocoa, plantain, kola, orange and yam, added that the armed youth who always come from Okumu Ijaw village to Oyinbogbeni, had remained uncontrollable by the community leaders.He also said that several representations made and letters written to government, police and Army formations in Edo State had proved fruitless, adding that the barbaric activities of the hoodlums had persisted, necessitating them to flee to their home state.The head of Kwara farmers in the area, who showed copies of letters written to Commander, 4 Mechanised Brigade, Nigerian Army, Director State Security Service (SSS) and Commissioner of Police in Edo state, added that the local government chairman in the area intervened but the intervention did not yield result.Atanda, who lamented that the farmers had to move to a refugee camp at Igbubazwa with members of their families immediately after the incident, added that they had to relocate to another place to avoid attack by the hoodlums.Also speaking, the Kwara State Coordinator of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Mr. Salam Maruff, called on authorities concerned to find a lasting solution to the problem, saying that the farmers should not be pushed to the point of retaliating attacks on them and their possession or the OPC fighting for their brothers."We called ourselves brothers in one nation called Nigeria. Why could some armed hoodlums be terrorising people in the search for their means of livelihood and the authorities are helpless' It is an insult and embarrassment on Edo State government and law enforcement agencies in that place," he said.
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