By Correspondent in Ondo
No fewer than 20 cash crop farmers in Ofosun farm lands, Ondo state,out of over 100 that have been urging the state to stop the sitting of factory on their farmland, have gone into trauma and receiving treatment in various hospitals in the area.
The representative of the farmers in the area,Mr Kehinde Lamidi, disclosed this to The Reporters,an online publication in a telephone interview from Ofosun on Saturday in Ondo, the state capital.
“Many of our members have developed one ailment or the other, particularly trauma,as a result of knowing that they would soon loose their farms, the major source of their livelihood, if the sitting of the proposed factory on their farms becomes a reality.
“Most of us have been into this type of farming for more than 20 year in Ofosun, where are we going to get another land for kind of agricultural activity.
“We have no other source of income except this cash crop farming which we choose as our life long activity, to enable us train our children and meet other financial family commitments as well as contribute our qouta to the agricultural development of the state and the country at large.
“We are still begging the state to look into our case, with a view to giving the management of the factory another site, particularly now that the effect is telling on our social and psychological being, not to tslk of the economic implementation on us,”Lamidi lamented.
He described Ofosun farmland as very fertile for growing of cocao,cashew,yam cassava among other cash crops, adding that those who engaged in such activity had not reneged in paying taxes to the coffers of the state government.
The Reporters recalls that the farmers had earlier sent “Save Our Soul”(SOS), through this medium,to the Governor of the state,Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, to look into their plea and do the needful over the issue.
According to the representative of the farmers, their plead had not yielded any fruitful as bulldozers continue to clear the farm, pulling down their crops.
Ofosun,a village where the cash crop farm is sited, is located along Benin-Lagos Express way in Ondo state, according to Lamidi.
