They accused soldiers of shooting at farm workers and beating up any man, woman or child they could get hold of in the community.
A group of Nigerian farmers from the Diaspora on Wednesday stormed the Lagos State House of Assembly complex in protest against the alleged takeover of their farmland in Afero, Eluju Mowo, Mutaku on Itoikin/Epe road by the Nigerian Army.
The protesters, under the aegis of Afero Farmers Community, gathered at the Assembly complex with placards.
They accused soldiers of shooting at farm workers and beating up any man, woman or child they could get hold of in the community.
The farmers lamented that some of their customers were flogged with horsewhips and relieved of their personal belongings. They also accused the soldiers of destroying crops, plants and farm equipment worth hundreds of millions of naira, stealing livestock, breaking down the walls meant to protect the farms and effectively decimating and disbanding the whole business enterprise of 20 farms on over 200 acres of land.
Wale Oyekoya, Chairman of the group told journalists that some soldiers taunted the farmers with the fact they cannot do anything because there will be no repercussions and they will never be held accountable for their actions.
He said they utilise sophisticated machinery and equipment imported from the US, China, and France to farm on a commercial scale thereby significantly contributing to crop production in Lagos and the country at large.
Oyekoya explained that there was no letter of warning, no phone call, no memo, no demand or any correspondence that the farmers had done anything wrong or even that they should vacate the land.
He said, "We are Afero Farmers, a group of Nigerian 20 Corporate farmers from the Diaspora who had a dream of building a better Nigeria and for this, we brought back our life savings and foreign investment to invest in Nigeria and build our dream country.
"Those dreams were crushed when on the morning of the 11th day of December 2023, in a brutal display of violence and utter carnage during the late season rains around 11:15 am that day they were violently invaded and brutally attacked by elements of the Nigerian military.
"Yesterday the CBN figures showed that Nigerians and especially Lagosians are experiencing a 33% rise in food inflation and a food crisis, this is not due to any phantom economic issues but is a deliberate Government policy. The Nigerian Army destroyed 20 of our corporate farms which produce millions of Naira worth of crops to Nigerians on a daily basis.
"We are not hoe and shovel farmers, we utilise the latest in mechanised machinery and equipment imported from China, US and France and practice farming on a Commercial scale thereby contributing to a large percent of crop production to the country and to Lagos State.
"The Nigerian Government in its wisdom instructed the Nigerian Army, the same Army supported by the taxes paid by the very same farmers, to redeploy its resources from protecting the territorial integrity of Nigeria to attack its Nigerian citizens and the soldiers mercilessly taunting the farmers with the fact they cannot do anything because there will be no repercussions and they will never be held accountable for their actions.
"There was no letter of warning, no phone call, no Memo no demand or indeed any correspondence that the farmers have done anything wrong or even that they should vacate the land. Even a declaration of war generally requires some sort of warning nothing of the sort took place.
"We sold off our successful companies, investments and houses from all over the diaspora to invest in this our country - Nigeria. We used the money to finance and on fencing, designing, farmland, landscaping, commercial fish ponds, piggeries, poultries, rabbitries, cattle ranches, hydroponic and greenhouse farms of different foods and cash crops for exports and local consumptions, snail pens, general abattoirs, etc. and invested in sophisticated mechanised agricultural machines, preservative and processing electronic equipment, electricity generating plants, farmhouses, irrigation machinery, only to have it all callously destroyed not by brigands, bandits or Boko Haram but by the same Nigerian government that claims to be seeking foreign investments, claims to be trying to alleviate the food crisis when that could not be further from the truth.
"We have written ceaselessly to several government authorities as far back as December 2023, absolutely nothing has been done. We have now come to the realisation that nothing has been done because the government does not want anything to be done because this food crisis was deliberately created.
"We had the opportunity to invest in Ghana, and other countries wooed us with government-backed loans but we made the disastrous mistake of investing in Nigeria for which we have been mercilessly punished.
"We had no idea when we were allocated parcels of land by a Lagos State Government that knew or ought to have known that the land belonged to the military government and who waited patiently for us to set up and operate for over 10 (Ten) years before sending various soldiers to take up combat positions all over the farmland and alleging the land belongs to the Nigerian military.
"They started firing bullets at the farm workers who were running for cover and anyone they got hold of, they beat up indiscriminately women, small children, and teenagers. Some of our customers were flogged with horsewhips and relieved of their personal belongings.”
He said, "We, the Afero farmers had previously relied on the assurances of the Lagos State Government to grant it allocation documents, survey plan, and Certificate of Occupancy and put it in exclusive possession and ownership of the state’s owned land with the further implied assurance that it will enjoy peaceful holding and use of the said land, we agreed to the aforesaid new location as part of the expected compensation although very far off from its displaced Afero community.
"We have lost billions in investments and many of us are facing financial crisis as we had to borrow money when our original investment was taken over by Lagos State ostensibly for public good but we later discovered it was parcelled up and used as housing estates.
"In this circumstance, we no longer see Lagos State or Nigeria as a safe investment destination but more as the Wild Wild West Africa that they have shown themselves to be. We want all our money back and we want our land back and we want justice.”