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A yet-to-identified Ekiti State resident has lamented the destruction wrecked on his plantain farm in Edemo, Ikere, Ekiti State, by Fulani herdsmen and their cows.
In a five-minute video shared by Ekiti Trends, an X page, a man states that cows herded by Fulani men destroyed all he worked for in the last year between March 2 and 3.
The man further states that the farm was all he had, as he resigned from his job as a civil servant in Abuja just to focus on plantain farming.
The man, who alternates between Yoruba and English and shows several stubs of plantain plants lying on the ground, says nothing was spared on his two-acre expanse of farmland.
“It has happened again. This happened in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State. I am on Edemo farm. I got into the farm this morning and this was how I met the farm I have spent a lot of money working on,” he said.
“The farm I have borrowed money to cultivate, this was how I met it today, March 4. This is something I have been labouring over since last year, and they ruined it in one night.
“I borrowed money to farm when I realised that the government job I was doing was not profitable. I resigned from my job last year in Abuja to venture into farming, that ‘if I can work, I will be able to take care of my children as they are about to enter the university’. I left my job to borrow money. I have spent more than N1 million on this land.”
The farmer said that despite several complaints to the Ekiti State government, no one did anything to protect the farmers and their crops.
“Please, don’t just look at us. We do not have other options. We can’t go into cybercrime or rob other people to make a living. The Ekiti State government should come to our aid. We have been complaining about the herders for a while, but nothing has been done.”
FIJ contacted Abutu Sunday, the public relations officer of the Ekiti State Police Command, but he didn’t speak on the matter. Instead, he said he would probably revert and ended the call.
This is coming amid the country’s food security concerns caused by insecurity, subsidy removal, and inflation, amongst others.
A media report states that about 31.5 million Nigerians might face food insecurity between June and August this year.
Source:: FIJ
