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Taskforce arrests herder, rams
By Oluseye Ojo
Herdsmen have destroyed 5.4 acres of cassava farmland at the Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority Land, Nikko, Iseyin, Oyo State.
They have also been destroying crops in the same farm settlement for the past few months.
Meanwhile, one of the herdsmen was caught in the act and arrested in connection with the destruction of the crops.
The arrest followed a petition written by a local farmer seeking justice and reclamation of damages after Fulani herdsmen destroyed 5.4 acres of his cassava farmland at the Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority Land.
The Oyo State Rule of Law Enforcement Authority (OYRLEA) led an enforcement team on Friday, July 25, to the farm settlement along Iseyin-Oyo Road, Iseyin.
The Information and Public Relations Officer of OYRLEA, Opeyemi Ogunniyi, in a statement made available to journalists on Saturday, stated that the enforcement team, led by a retired deputy commissioner of police, Mr Francis Ojomo, in a swift response to addressing the incident and to ensuring that justice is served after thorough investigation, met an unpleasant situation on the farm settlement with herds of cattle grazing on the farmland.
Ojomo is the Chairman of the Environmental Task Force in the state. He was accompanied during the operations by Mrs I. E. Akinbode, Chief of Staff to the Chairperson, Rule of Law Enforcement Authority, Justice Aderonke Aderemi, along with some other officials of OYRLEA.
However, only a few of the cows were apprehended as the herders tried to evade capture upon sighting the enforcement vehicles.
The herders reportedly whispered a command to the cows in their hundreds, and they all took to their heels at the same time.
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But some rams were captured alongside one of the herders, Alhaji Amosa, arrested for trespassing and open grazing on the farmer’s land.
The suspect has been taken for prosecution in court, while the livestock were taken to the Ministry of Agriculture.
During the enforcement exercise, some farmers, who came for their farming activities on the settlement, narrated the ordeals encountered by the farmers’ association as a result of herders’ invasion and destruction of crops, a resultant effect of open grazing, in spite of the Anti-Open Rearing and Grazing Law of Oyo State, 2019.
They, however, expressed their delight at the state government’s intervention against herders’ invasion and referred to the act as a relief to them.
Mr AbdulRazak Akadi, Secretary of the Farmers’ Association of the Middle Ogun Irrigation Project, who spoke on behalf of others, said: “We have been toiling for the herders to reap. We do not make profit on our farmlands, and this is unbecoming.”
The farmer, who preferred his identity withheld, said: “My cassava farm was initially destroyed a month after planting, and despite assurances from the herdsmen that it would not happen again, the farm was destroyed once more on Friday, July 11, 2025.”
But the farmer has identified the herdsmen responsible for the destruction and is seeking prosecution.
The OYRLEA, however, gave assurance that a written undertaking from the herdsmen not to trespass further on the farmland would be duly signed to promote peaceful coexistence.
