Oyo APC blasts state govt over land development, warns of looming food scarcity

The Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has raised an alarm over impending food shortage in the state.

APC, in a statement made available to DAILY POST on Sunday, noted that conversion of farmlands to real estates is a sing of impending food shortage in the state.

The party made the assertion in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Wasiu Olawale Sadare.

Sadare in the statement said that conversion of large expanses of land on which agricultural practices are being carried out by farmers into housing estates poses danger of food insecurity in the state.

He said that thousands of farmers whose job is to cultivate food products have no lands to farm, noting that hundreds of local farmers in Idi-Igbaro and Akufo in Ido local government area and their counterparts in Ajibade, Olosa-Oko, Alaase, Alagbaa, Oloje, Elekuru, Agbirigidi in Akinyele local government area have been sent away by real estate developers.

Warning that this could lead to food shortage and food insecurity if not properly cheeked, Sadare lamented that Oyo State cannot boast of a single agricultural produce.

“The rate at which the present PDP administration in Oyo State is inflicting hardship on the masses has reached its crescendo and we, at the APC, can no longer keep silent. On daily basis, the Makinde administration rob the poor to further enrich the affluent few in the guise of urbanization policy and improved internally generated revenue drive. As the agents of the state forcefully eject traders and shop or office owners from their legitimate business premises, farmers are not only being chased away from their farmlands even as their growing crops and plants are destroyed to pave the way for residential buildings.

“As of last Friday; hundreds of local farmers in Idi-Igbaro and Akufo in Ido local government area as well as their colleagues in Ajibade, Olosa-Oko, Alaase, Alagbaa, Oloje, Elekuru, Agbirigidi among other ancient settlements in Akinyele local government area were thrown into collosal losses as agents of the state government had destroyed all the crops on their farmlands. Among the crops which were sacrificed for housing estates are several thousands of cocoa, cashew, mango, oil palm trees and coffee as well as arable crops such as maize, cassava, yam and vegetables.

“This happened at a time when citizens face food crisis in the mode of scarcity and high cost of food commodities. While states like Niger, Borno, Kebbi and Kwara are doing so much to assist and encourage their local farmers, the PDP administration in Oyo is making life unbearable to them and our governor keeps deceiving the world that he is promoting Agribusiness. As it stands, Oyo state cannot boast of a single agricultural produce which is being made available to the global market despite the vast fertile land resources and favourable weather which God has blessed the state with. This is shameful.”

Oyo APC blasts state govt over land development, warns of looming food scarcity