The commercial farmers in Igangan community, Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State, under the aegis of the Igangan Agro Park Investors Association, have asked the state government and the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State to find a lasting solution to the unprecedented losses occasioned by the incessant invasion of their farms by some cattle herders.
This came as some cattle, belonging to herders whose identity are yet to be known, reportedly plundered the over 10 hectares of maize plantation of some commercial farmers in Igangan on Saturday and Sunday.
The Punch Investigation showed that upon the complaints by farmers, the police in Igangan, alongside the Seriki Fulani of Igangan, Alhaji Kadir Saliu, trailed the herders to the forest to arrest them.
The team reportedly succeeded in getting the cows but the herders were nowhere to be found.
It was agreed by the farmers and the police that the 88 cows should be kept at the Seriki Fulani’s courtyard pending when the cow owners would be apprehended.
But the Seriki Fulani later told our correspondent on the phone that the herders later showed up and they would meet the owners of the farm to discuss settlement.
He said, “The hope is that the cows would be released to them and they would meet the farmers tomorrow (Wednesday) to discuss about the settlement. You know it is not easy for me to keep 88 cows at my place for long.”
But the President, Igangan Agro Park Investors Association, Mr Olufemi Abioye, said rather than release the cows to the herders pending when a meeting would hold on settlement, “the cows should be kept with the state Agro Ranger Patrol Team in order not to scuttle the fair process of settlement.”
