" Peasant farmers’ dreams turn to nightmares as Ondo govt gives land to corporate investors" 1 May 2024

On a Saturday morning in early January, farmers in Abana, a farm settlement in Ondo West Local Government Area, lined a narrow path as they headed into the forest for the day’s labour. The settler farmers had grown cocoa, kolanuts and oil palm in the area for generations. The mood was upbeat among the farmers as the cocoa season had just opened with the price shooting up to unprecedented levels due to the plummeting value of the naira, the Nigerian currency. At about N10,000 per kilogramme, a tonne of cocoa would make a farmer a multi-millionaire. But their moods quickly changed to apprehension as they approached their farms and the sound of heavy equipment became louder. They knew what the sound foreboded. Workmen, with the police providing them cover, were busy clearing their farms.

After three months of the exercise in five communities across the forest reserves of Ondo West Local Government Area, thousands of hectares of cocoa, kolanuts and palm trees were cleared and the land was made bare. [...] Last month, this reporter met Muyidat Suleiman trying to salvage what she could from her palm trees after they had been felled by bulldozers. Her cocoa and kolanut trees lay mangled in the clearing that for many years was her farm. With teary eyes, she said her livelihood had been destroyed. [...]

Representatives of the affected farmers on 27 March took their grievances to the paramount ruler of Ondo kingdom, the Osemawe, Victor Kiladejo, who promised to pass their petitions to the state government.

In June 2021, the late Mr Akeredolu flagged off the Red Gold Project by inaugurating a privately owned Gas Inland LPG Terminal and Oil Palm Mills in the Ore Industrial Park in Odigbo Local Government Area of the state. The Red Gold Project was 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. Mr Ogunleye said the protest was the third that they had held. They have also taken their case before the state high court. He said the court granted an injunction last year for the destruction of the farms to stop, but the reprieve was brief, as the bulldozers resumed work at the beginning of this year.

SAO Agro Allied Company is a leading investor in oil palm production in Nigeria. It also claims to be the lead investor in the Ondo Special Agro Processing Zone, backed by the AfDB and the state government. It aspires to produce 160,000 tonnes of oil palm by the end of next year.

The company is also projecting to become a dominant force in cashew production through the establishment of a cutting-edge processing facility, with a capacity to process 50 metric tonnes of cashew daily. Its ongoing project in Ore, Ondo State also plans to produce 25,000MT of cassava to fortify its supply chain, all of which would require several thousands of hectares from the state government. According to Mr Bolanle, unless the policy is reviewed, more farmers in yet-affected areas will lose their farmlands. SAO said on its website that it currently runs a farm operation covering 20,000 hectares. However, it is not known how many of these it has in Abana and Idanre. Responding to PREMIUM TIMES inquiries in Abana, an official of the company, David Olijogun, stated in an email that its land was legitimately acquired from the state government. “This Red Gold programme, if you are not aware, was initiated by government to redevelop the oil palm belt of Ondo State through the declassification of degraded Government Forest Reserve solely owned by government, and concessioning to qualified investors to develop commercial oil palm estates and to most importantly to reforest the degraded forest land to tackle climate change,” he said.

“Regarding the issue of compensation, farmers and occupiers who are on the land illegally in these locations were invited numerous times by the state government almost two years ago and duly informed of the change of ownership from government to private investors and for them to vacate the land to enable investor start the above mentioned project.

“Compensation and process to execute this will have been initiated by government as the assurance from government before making these huge investments in acquiring the land and developing the estates were assurances of hitch-free activities on the land.

“Upon the above, after giving them a lengthy grace period to harvest their crops, we have since commenced work on the land with massive investments and infrastructure development creating mass employment for different communities around us, which is evident in the fact that most of the farmers and occupiers are cooperating with us due to socio-economic benefits accruing to them, this includes also Abana and Tokunbo Camp, however, one or two of the farmers who are disgruntled due to the removal of their farms planted illegally have sued us to court joining in the lawsuit other farmers who have openly condemned the suit, exonerated themselves by going to court to remove their names from the suit and counter suing these farmers for wrongfully including them as a plaintiff.

“A few days ago, members of the above communities mentioned by you also approached us through the King, the Akogbe of Ajue land to plead that we give them an additional six months grace period to further harvest their crops which we gracefully obliged them.”

Mr Olijogun further noted that the calls for compensation and grace time came to the company as a shock as these issues had been taken care of and the company had been going on with its legitimate business.

“We did experience farmer protest when we started last year, violence from them from time to time. However, we have since brought them on board, provided over 1000 jobs since inception, healthcare to anyone needing it, and with plans to develop schools, health centres, we haven’t experienced any protests because we have given them enough soft landing, having been notified about two years now,” the company said.

However, contrary to the company’s claim, farmers in Abana like Mrs Suleman and Mr Akinyosoye said they have received no compensation.