Ondo State Government on Wednesday said it did not give any order or directive to arrest farmers inside its Ofosu forest in Idanre local government area of the state.
The Senior Special Assistant on Agric and Agric Business to Ondo State Governor, Mr Wemimo Akinsola, stated this while reacting to reports of unlawful arrests of some farmers by yet to be identified people in the forest.
Speaking with Newsmen in Akure the state capital, Akinsola, who is also the Chairman of Ondo State Committee on Agric and Food Security in the State, said the current government is farmer friendly and would not do such during this trying period in the state.
According to Akinsola, he has been receiving calls from lawyers of the farmers that his office had ordered arrest of farmers in the Ofosu forest.
He said the government was trying to resolve all issues that had been existing in the past and would not do anything to compound the already tensed situation.
Akinsola said in as much as the issues that led to some of the farmers being arrested were not clear, he got the hint that some of the farmers were arrested for not joining certain cocoa association.
“We got a report that some people were going into the forest, arresting people, farmers, this morning. And we just want to make it clear, the governor has not given any instruction for anybody to arrest anybody over anything.
“We are in a situation where we’re trying to settle issues with our farmers, which we’re having problems with.
“And we don’t need any more uproar in this state with farmers and we’re farmers-friendly.
“We need our farmers to cooperate with government, and we want our farmers on the farm, not in police stations or in police cells,” he said.
Akinsola,who said the situation was disheartening,said the only focus of the government was ending food insecurity in the land.
“We’ve been trying as much as possible to end this food insecurity which is all over the world and we don’t need any of these things to actually happen at all,” he said.
