Cocoa farmers in the Oluwa Forest Reserve in the Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State, have appealed to Asabi Abiodun, the Ondo state Commissioner of Police, to guard them from purported attacks from thugs.
According to the farmers, the attacks started when the State’s High Court in Ore ordered the state government and other defendants to stop working on the property.
An agro-allied firm stated that the state government had leased the cocoa farmlands to it, but the farmers clarified that the company had received a court order in May of this year prohibiting it from doing any thing on the area.
The cocoa farmers in the area have been attacked by local thugs since May.
Regarding the grading and invasion of their cocoa farmlands as well as violent attempts to expel their members, the farmers have filed a lawsuit in court.
An interim injunction prohibiting the Ondo State Government and others from grading their cocoa plantations and farmlands any further or continuing to grade them was granted by the Ondo State High Court in Ore.
Odugemi Omolewa, the secretary for farmers, pleaded with the state government to save them from losing their source of income.
