When will Epe farms know peace?

Worried by the continued  invasion of their  farms , farmers and farm owners again on Monday protested  at the  Alausa Ikeja office  of the state governor , Akinwunmi Ambode  and urged the governor to consider deploying military  personnel to the Epe Farm Settlement, saying that other measures to secure  the farms had failed.

The farmers stated that investments worth  over  twenty billion naira are on the verge of being destroyed as a result of the siege  by the militants as more and more farm owners and workers are scared of going to the farm .

Ayokunle Ore, a farm owner, who spoke on behalf of other farm owners  and workers, stated that the scenario  in all the farms in the settlement is that of hopelessness   and that many of them are discouraged from further investment.

The farm owner said    “On 16th of September, 3 female farm workers and six-month-old baby were kidnapped. Two months later, precisely, 16th of November, four farmers were kidnapped from Farmville.”

Ore also added that “ Also, November 21st of the same year, five workers were kidnapped from Kodjo Farms. On the 19th of January, 2017, we also recorded another incident when 2 farm workers one of them a female were kidnapped from Tanda Farms.”

The spokesperson of the protesters also stated “The kidnappers also visited Elysian Farm, the farm managers and a customer was kidnapped on the same day . Just last month, February 14, the kidnappers returned to Elysian farms and kidnapped  4 workers, a casual worker, 2 vigilante group members. As at the last count, kidnappers were demanding N5million for each of the kidnapped 7 people who are still in their captivity.”

He also stated that “As criminal continue to ravage our communities and our farms, we have met  with the Commissioner of Police, unfortunately whatever efforts the police must have made so far could not yield any result as the spate of kidnapping is on the increase.”

The farm owner lamented that “Even our private efforts in engaging community vigilantes, and supporting the police in limited patrol that invariably limited our costs, have also not yielded any reprieve. Sometime, we have had to pay heavily for police efforts to get to our farms,” the farmer added.”

Less than twenty four hours, after the farm owners and workers protested, the kidnappers struck again early Tuesday morning and abducted another four workers in one of the farms. The kidnappers, while trying to escape from the area engaged the police in a fierce gun battle in which an operational vehicle of the police was badly riddled with bullets.

Four of the seven workers , who were last week abducted in Igbodu however escaped from the kidnappers’ s den , while three others were as at Tuesday evening still being detained by the kidnappers.

The state police commissioner, Fatai Owoseni  confirmed the Monday invasion to the Nigerian Tribune describing it as a foiled attempt. The police boss claimed that the police not only repelled the criminals but also rescue four of the seven  farmers, who were earlier abducted.

Farm settlements around Epe area of Lagos State have, in recent times, been subjected to attacks by suspected militants, who abducted farm owners and workers and collected millions of naira as ransom.

Lately, Igbodu, in particular, has borne the brunt of majority of the attacks, as just between January and February 2017, more than twelve  people, including a youth corps member, Ifeoluwa  Olabiyi, were abducted by kidnappers and ransom received before they were released.

It appears that the deployment of policemen by the Lagos State police commissioner, Fatai Owoseni, to farm settlements in the area, has done little or nothing to scare away the kidnappers. Not even the resolve of the farm owners to engage private security guards has done anything to remedy the situation.

Worried by the high rate of kidnapping in Lagos, especially around Epe farm settlements, the Inspector General of Police, over the weekend, expressed the commitment of the top echelon of the Nigeria Police Force to establish a tracking unit in Lagos.

In 2016 , a farm manager was killed and two farm owners were abducted by a gang of kidnappers, which included two former staff members of one of the farms in the area. The farm owners were later released, after they paid the sum of N22million to their abductors.

Irked by the rising invasion of the militants, the farmer, on Friday, decided to down tools until the state government and the Nigeria Police Force found lasting solution to the problem.

Investments worth billions of naira are on the verge of being abandoned by hundreds of investors, who have described the constant attacks by militants as “threatening.”

A resident of the area , who spoke with Nigerian Tribune, under the condition of anonymity, stated that the farm workers and owners decided to protest, when it was clear to them that they could not achieve much on their own. According to him, some of the security men, who were employed to protect the farms, were also abducted.

The resident said: “We are tired. We can no longer carry out our business and the lives of our workers are also not safe. In recent times, we have been calling on security agencies to provide security in the area because we also contribute to the gross domestic product of Lagos State and create jobs for  the youths of the community.”

A  farmer, Segun Olugbogi, said that his farm is the worst hit by the kidnappers. He claimed that: “I have paid ransom for about ten of my workers who have been abducted at different times by the kidnappers, and each time we call on the police, they tell us to provide security for ourselves, which I think is not the best option. Security agencies should also see us as part of Nigeria, and it is our statutory right to be protected from criminal elements.”

The traditional head of Igbodu, Chief Micheal Shodipo, lamented the activities of the militants, which, according to him, had punctured the peace and tranquility that the community enjoyed in the past.

The village head said: “When we were growing up, what we are witnessing now did not take place. It is when we pray for investors to come into our community to develop and engage our youths that the kidnappers took advantage of our magnanimity.

“We know what to do but we don’t want to take laws into our hands because the kidnappers don’t know our community more than we do. We still have the traditional way of tackling them.”

Ifeoluwa and others, who were, in January, abducted at Tanda Farm in Igbodu, described the stay in the kidnappers’ den as “horrible” and that the abductors usually beat them during ransom negotiation.

“We would hear them beating the workers on phone. Each time the farm management and I tried to negotiate with the kidnappers, we always heard them beating the workers over the delay in ransom payment,” one of the negotiators for Tanda Farm said.

He also added that “They also subjected them to several prayer sessions, instructing the victims to pray for them so that police would not arrest them. They also told them to pray for their kidnapping business to thrive. After the prayers, they fed them eba and egusi soup. They were fed just once a day. They have a place where they extract information from victims and a room where they keep women under menstruation.”

Two prominent farm owners in Egan area of the farm settlement, Alhaji Wasiu Oyebanji and Alhaji Isiaka Owolabi, were last year abducted alongside their manager, Abodun Adeniyi, in yet another attack on the farm settlement. While the two farm owners were lucky to have escaped after their relatives paid the ransom of N22 million, the abductors killed the farm manager.

Three former workers at the farm, Priye Idoro, Idowu Dauwujoh and Daniel Jekem, were arrested in connetion with the killing of the farm manager . They confessed to the crime and claimed that they killed the deceased manager because he sacked them while they were working at the farms.

The Assistant Inspector General of Police in Charge of Zone 2, Kayode Aderanti described kidnapping as “a major problem in the state and assured that the police would increase visibility around the troubled zone.

The police boss said: “We will police that area twenty-four hours every day and my advice to business owners and  school operators in that area is that they should be security conscious and do their background check of anybody they want to employ.”

He also added that “We are also going to do our own job to see to the release of victims without paying a dime to the abductors.”