After farmers in Odigbo Local Government, Ondo State, staged a protest in the Oluwa Forest, traffic on the heavily used Lagos-Ore road was delayed for hours on Sunday.
The protesting farmers barricaded the road in an effort to stop SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited, which is supposedly controlled by Ayo Sotinrin—who was just named Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) by President Bola Tinubu—from forcibly evicting them from their farms.
Protesting farmers claim that Wemimo Akinsola, who is Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s Senior Special Assistant on Agriculture and Agri-business, is helping the private firm.
The evicted farmers slammed the firm for their treatment of the farmlands. They carried placards reading “Rotimi Wemimo Must Go,” “Ayo Sotinrin Is Using Govt Power On Poor Farmers,” “Farmers Have Rights To Life,” “Tinubu Save Farmers From Sotinrin,” and “SAO Belongs To Ayo Sotinrin, MD, Bank of Agric,” among others.
On behalf of the farmers, Musafiu Irewolede characterized the action as unlawful, saying that the corporation had asserted its ownership of the more than 10,000 hectares of farmland from the state government.
Farming here has cost us N20,000 per rope since 2019. The truth is that we challenged this illegal act in court and were successful in getting an injunction to stop the destruction of the farmland. However, they persisted in disobeying the court order and never stopped.
In order to level the fields, SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited sent a bulldozer. Rotimi Wemimo Akinsola, the senior special assistant to Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, is helping out Ayo Sotinrin, an appointee of President Bola Tinubu, who purchased the land from the state government.
It was revealed by Irewolede that the state administration had been taxing the farmers for more than 20 years. According to him, the farmers have been forking out cash for a plethora of taxes, including those for rent, security, and identification cards.
The land had provided sustenance for numerous families and houses, according to Felix Adeniyi, another farmer, and the development would force at least fifteen thousand farmers to leave their homes.
Therefore, we are requesting that Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa remove Mr. Rotimi Wemimo from his position because he is egocentric, hostile to Ondo State farmers, and working to further the interests of private investors rather than the public good.
“Mr. Ayo Sotinrin’s immediate resignation as MD of Bank of Agriculture is demanded due to a conflict of interest. If he refuses to resign, President Bola Tinubu is called upon to remove him.”
When asked about the allegations that SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited was forcibly removing farmers off their farmland, Sotinrin disputed the accusation and instead stated that SAO Agro-Allied had completed the land allocation, paid all fees, and got a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).