A project of the Ondo State Government for massive production of oil palm through agro-allied companies has led to thousands of peasant farmers being thrown off their farmlands.
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.
For Toyin Akor, the world seemed to have come to an end. The 52-year-old woman had been farming cocoa in the forest for over 20 years. "I had about two hectares of cocoa, where I made at least N2 million annually, but everything was cleared in one day," she told this reporter.
"No one told me anything before they came. We heard that government has sold the land to a Chinese company, that is all we heard and no one is ready to listen to what we have to say or what has happened to us," she told PREMIUM TIMES.
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 tears was her farm. With teary eyes, she said her livelihood had been destroyed.
"We expect that someone would admit that there were crops on this land and pay us for the destruction, but they have not paid any compensation," Mrs Suleiman said.
Ojo Akinyosoye, 25, had moved to the settlement five years ago in a bid to fight poverty. He had just married and was looking forward to harvesting his cocoa crops at the end of the year. That may never happen, because his farm too had been marked for clearing.
"I have spent so much money on the farm in the last five years. The trees have started producing but the crops are not ready for harvest. I don't know how to start again or where to go," Mr Akinyosoye said.
Gbemiga Ogunleye is the leader and spokesperson of the farmers in Abana. The father of three was making about N4 million annually from cocoa sales and had hoped to raise his earnings to N20 million this year, he said.
"My children are in higher institutions and paying fees is now impossible because all my investments are gone with the farms," he said.
"Some of our colleagues died after their farms were demolished, some had stroke and are bedridden and they have no money for treatment."
Mr Ogunleye said the communities made several efforts to get the state government to either reverse the eviction order or give them enough time to harvest the crops but all to no avail. "Even the current Speaker of the House of Assembly told us they cannot help us," Mr Ogunleye said.
"The land belongs to the government, that is why we have little to say and we appear to be helpless," he added.
Protests
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.
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.
"We protested to the company, SAO Agro Allied Company, but they said the government did not tell them there were crops on the land," Mr Ogunleye said. "They said the government told them it was just a forest."
There was a similar protest by farmers in Idanre over the sale of lands to the same company. The Oloja of Eruwa, the monarch of one of the communities in Ondo West LGA, Olalani Ibitoye, appealed to the state government to let the farmers be, considering the current economic hardship in the country.
"We confirm that our farmlands had been sold to China by the immediate past administration of Akeredolu, we saw that they have brought in bulldozers to clear some parts in which we have witnessed," the community head said.
"We felt we have been left alone to farm after we protested last year. We had written petitions because this land belongs to our forefathers, but recently we saw them (Chinese investors) around again. We are appealing to all the authorities involved that we have no other place to go, we do not want to be out there as hoodlums, thieves.
"We have been here for many years and I cannot go anywhere with my children. I am old. We are just asking the government to have mercy and leave us alone here."
Red gold project
As part of an investment drive, former Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu's administration initiated a project for massive production of oil palm through hi-tech agro-allied companies. The government wants to attract agro-industries to the state, raise internally generated revenue and provide jobs.
In 2023, Nigeria produced 1.4 million metric tonnes of palm oil, according to Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform. Between 2009 and 2023, production increased, registering the highest growth in 2010 of 14 per cent.
There is also a growing domestic consumption of palm oil with about 1.8 million metric tonnes consumed in Nigeria in the 2021/2022 crop year. This figure was higher than each of the 10 preceding years. Most local consumption is for industrial purposes, while a smaller percentage is used by households.
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.
"This is a farm that we are projecting to stand on a total land area of 10,000 hectares and more, and this is just the first one and I believe it will be more than this," Mr Akeredolu had said. "As of today, we have given out 70,000 hectares to investors, about five or six of them."
By the end of 2022, the state government had expanded the project to 80,000 hectares. In recognition of the state's commitment to the project, NPPAN conferred an award of the Distinguished Champion of Red Gold on Mr Akeredolu. The land of the farmers in Abana is part of the Red Gold project.
Mr Akeredolu died on 27 December and it is yet unclear if his successor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, inherited his passion for the project. The state is holding another governorship election in November.
Paying rent
At Tokunbo, the headquarters of farming communities such as Temidire, Onipako, Tale, Olorunsogo, Oloruntedo, and Abana, farmers urged the government to stop the destruction of their crops. The villages lie several kilometres in the forest after Bagbe town, off the Ondo-Ore highway.
The Chief Imam of Tokunbo central mosque, Oyewo Bolarinwa, said farmers had been in the area for over 30 years.
According to him, the farmers started paying rent to the state government under the Akeredolu administration.
"Each farmer was required to pay N10,000 to the state government as rent annually," he said. "We continued to pay that amount until suddenly we were told the land had been sold. We were painting the N10,000 from 2018 until 2022. That was four years before the issues started.
"We have sought legal actions, we have protested and we have appealed to the relevant authorities, but nothing positive has happened. We have lost billions of naira and lives as well. We are saying what you have destroyed is enough, stop further destruction so that those who are alive can survive."
Ondo forest reserves
Ondo State has an expansive forest reserve over which it has been engaged in a losing battle for decades to stop farmers from encroaching. PREMIUM TIMES' investigation revealed that the state government mapped out 300,000 hectares of forest reserves for its Gold Project initiative. It however planned to leave 100,000 hectares for the use of local farmers.
The consideration of the local farmers was motivated by the security situation in the South-west where bandits used forests as hideouts. Several high-profile individuals in the state fell victim to banditry, including Funke Olakunrin, the daughter of Afenifere leader Reuben Fasoranti, in July 2019. Her killers were said to have operated from Oluwa Forests Reserve in Ore in Odigbo LGA, carrying out attacks on users of the Ore-Ijebu-Ode expressway.
State government officials said the farmers who had encroached on the reserves were aware of the incursions of the terrorists there but failed to report the developments to the government. They said the forests were also being used for large-scale farming of Indian hemp, with hundreds of hectares of economic trees destroyed by cannabis farmers.
"There was a need to open up the forest," Akin Olotu, the senior special assistant on agriculture and agribusiness to the late Mr Akeredolu, told PREMIUM TIMES.
"Akeredolu agreed to create an enclave for the farmers, instead of having scattered farms and a waste of land. By that design, the farmers will be in clusters and would be given improved seedlings for a more fruitful and organised cocoa and oil palm production, but they refused," Mr Olotu said.
Mr Olotu said the cluster farming was successful at Oluwa where the farmers were registered under the Atewolara Cocoa Farmers Cooperatives. However the majority of the farmers were not ready for change and insisted on practices contrary to the policy of the government, he said.
He denied that the farmers were not given notices before the bulldozers were sent to their farms.
"We gave them a soft landing. We gave them the opportunity of relocating to a new enclave where they would be allocated lands and grow improved seeds and get more yields, but they turned it down," he said.
"When we met with their heads and informed them of what the government is doing, the camp heads don't relay to the farmers the truth because of what they get from the farmers as fees."
Company reacts
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.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"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.
Governor Aiyedatiwa's dilemma
The present government led by Lucky Aiyedatiwa said it has received petitions and protests from farmers in the affected areas.
But Mr Aiyedatiwa was part of the government that initiated the Red Gold Project and participated in the activities leading up to the present situation. However, his Special Adviser on Information, Olugbenga Omole, said the government would address the issue squarely at the appropriate time.
"A lot of illegalities happened in the past year, but I cannot go into the details right now," he said. "But I can assure you that Governor Aiyedatiwa is going to look into the situation and bring succour to the people. The present government will not sit down and allow the people's heritage to be destroyed."
