Chairman, Afero Commercial Farmers Association, Prince Wale Orekoya, speaks to GRACE EDEMA on how over 50 farmers were displaced by the military from their 1,000 hectares of land in Afero, Itoikin community, Epe Local Government Area of Lagos State, which was allocated to them by the Lagos State Government
You are one of the farmers allegedly displaced from their farmland by the military. Can you shed more light on the incident?
Initially, we believed the government wanted to use our farmland for the Lagos State International Airport project. It seemed like public interest was being prioritised over ours, even though we are law-abiding citizens and commercial farmers.
At the time, the Lagos State Government took over the expanse of land we were using. Altogether, the farmers occupied about 1,000 hectares.
Personally, I had about 150 acres where I was engaged in livestock and crop farming. Some of us had already planted oil palm trees that were nearing maturity.
