Ondo PDP Slams Akeredolu over Alleged Plans to Acquire Idanre Forest Reserve

Fidelis David in Akure

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State yesterday warned the state Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN),  to rescind his alleged plans of selling 50,000 hectares of land at Ofosu forest reserve to a private companies at the detriment of the farmers in Idanre Local Government Area of the state.

A statement issued by the state party’s Director of Media and Publicity, Leye Igbabo, alleged that the planned sale of the land was meant to benefit the family of the governor. The statement said: “It has become necessary to alert the world about the dangerous attempt by the Akeredolu-led APC government in Ondo State to violently seize 50,000 hectares of farmland from Idanre people in Idanre LGA and cede it to private companies at the detriment of the agrarian community. The implications are indeed very grievous!

“From the available records, we verily believe that the said area was constituted as a forest reserve for the joint use and benefit of the government and the communities which own the land, and therefore hold that if there was any step or move to be taken by the government on how the said area is to be put to use, it must duly carry along the community.

“We are aware that sometimes in 2018, the community, through its traditional council, sent a letter to the Ondo State Government under the leadership of Akeredolu demanding the release of certain portion of the forest reserve to the community for farming purposes due to the ever increasing agricultural needs of the people to which the government acceded. And the community keeps on growing by the day.

“We hold therefore that the reason that the government refused to carry the people along was due to the primordial interest of the operators of government, particularly, the governor and his immediate family, who have penchant for property acquisition and have ‘Ipsofacto’, been taking over any unutilised government land in Ondo State through their cronies.”

PDP also claimed that the latest action of the state government is capable of brewing avoidable crisis most especially with the recent  peaceful protest organised by Idanre people, warning the government against tampering with their means of livelihood under any disguise.

“The APC government should know that any attempt to take away the means of survival of a people will be resisted, especially when its governments at all levels, including the one being operated in Ondo State, have inflicted more than enough, multi-faceted injuries on the people.

“This latest injury is one too many and copiously demonstrates crass insensitivity and irresponsiveness of the APC led government to the yearnings and well-being of the people it purports to serve. This is not only hypocritical, it is also cynical and farcical and its end-result, may be more tragically than ever imagined.

We are imploring the state government, particularly the governor and his immediate family, to control their appetite for property acquisition, and therefore desist from acquiring and converting government property in their custody for their personal aggrandisement as everything in life is vanity upon vanity.”

Meanwhile, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Governor Akeredolu on Agriculture and Agro-business, Mr. Akin Olotu, said the government as well as his agency would not succumb to blackmail on the part of the farmers or any other person.

He emphasised that the action of the state government as regards the farmland was in the interest of the farmers and the state.