Herdsmen Relocate To Ekiti Forest Reserve, Destroy Multi-Million Naira Maize Farm |The Source

By Ayodele Oni

The peace agreement between states in the South- west and Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders, seems to have hit the rock less than 24 hours after it was signed.

Maize Growers Processing Marketer Association of Nigeria (MAGPAMAN)in Ekiti state cried out over an alleged destruction of their multi million naira maize farm by suspected Fulani  herdsmen.

The farm, located in Ado Ekiti, covers about 235 hectares of land, and is at the state forest reserve in Aduloju farmstead.

Secretary of the association, Mr Tope Emmanuel, disclosed in the state capital on Tuesday that the herders had been terrorising the farmers in the area for sometime, leading to the destruction of the maize farm.

According to him, the itinerant Fulani  herdsmen stormed the farm at night with dangerous weapons and fed their cows with maize and cassava daring to kill anyone that stopped them.

Emmanuel disclosed that members obtained about N6.6 million loan from the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) under the anchor borrowers’ programme in September 2020 to plant the maize, adding that the 160 members had been left with nothing as profit from the expected proceed worth N10 million.

“Last year, we approached the CBN as a group to obtain loan worth N6.6 million for the maize farm and we planted the maize covering 235 hectares of land the farm.”