A former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral Samuel Afolayan, has lamented the menace of destruction of farmlands and attack on farmers by herdsmen.
He said if the menace is not curtailed, all efforts by federal and state governments to ensure national food sufficiency, employment generation, industrialisation and diversification of the economy may become fruitless .
He narrated how herders attacked his Special Royal Farm at Obbo-Ile in the Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State and destroyed 121 hectares of his 500 hectare farmland.
Conducting journalists round the destroyed/burnt farm on Wednesday, he stated that out of his 500-hectare farm, the herders newly burnt 67 hectares of cassava worth N57m; 50 hectares of palm trees and four hectares of sweet corns ready for harvest valued at N2.5m.
He explained that out of 5,000 orange trees on the farm, less than 2,000 trees were spared.
Afolayan said neither the Federal Government nor the Kwara State Government had come to his aid.
He added that only the Ekiti Local Government Council chairman visited the farm and sympathised with him.
He said, “The continued destruction of farms by herdsmen is sad. For me, and with my experience, without the FG taking serious steps to halt herdsmen destruction, the FG’s food production and employment programme will be in vain.”
According to him , “The action of the herdsmen has proved to me that it is a deliberate act. Now, I have traced their cows to their camps; that is why I concluded that somebody living a distance of between three and six kilometres goes inside my farm to destroy it. I believe it is intentional.”
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