A herdsman who was a former employee of Lehin Investment Farms has set ablaze about 20 hectares of cassava and rice plantations of his former employer.
Hammed Gaa-Alakuko was employed last March alongside two other herdsmen to help prevent the destruction of their farm by herdsmen, was disengaged nine months later, had returned to the business of tending to cattle.
The consultant of the company, Daramola Josiah, has been on the run, while the police are on his trail.
Conducting journalists round the affected farm at Idofian/Igberiin in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, Josiah estimated the destruction to be about N20m.
According to him, the destruction has negatively affected the efforts of the company to contribute positively towards increasing food production in Kwara State.
He called on the Federal Government and the Kwara State to come to the aid of the company to cushion the effect of the loss.
“We started this plantation last year and planted cassava and maize. I was on the farm working with 11 workers when we discovered the fire coming from the other side of the farmland. It was a hot afternoon and the fire became intense. It took 11 of us three hours to put out the fire.
“About 20 hectares of our cassava farm and two hectares of rice farm that were due to be harvested were destroyed. We were supposed to harvest the cassava this year, while we also lost some economic trees like cashew.”
Last week, a similar incident happened in Ondo, where a palm oil plantation belonging to a dormer SGF Olu Falae was torched by people suspected to be herdsmen.
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