PDP warns Akeredolu against selling Ondo forest reserve

The Ondo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, on Thursday, called on Governor Rotimi Akeredolu not to sell a 50,000-hectare of forest reserve in Idanre, the Idanre Local Government Area of the state, to private companies.

Some farmers in Idanre LGA few days ago took to the streets to protest alleged sale of their cocoa, plantain and palm tree plantations in the forest reserve to Chinese investors by the state government.

The protesters alleged that the state government collected levies from them annually and taxes on their farm produce on daily basis, but later planned to sell the farms located in the forest reserve to foreign companies.

In a statement issued by the Director of Media and Publicity of the state PDP, Mr Leye Igbabo, the opposition party warned the government to shelve the plan of selling the land for the sake of the farmers that were farming on the land to make their living.

The PDP threatened that any attempt to sell the land would spark off crisis in the area.

The statement partly read, “We are imploring the operators of government in Ondo State, particularly the governor and his immediate family, to control their appetite for property acquisition and therefore desist from acquiring and converting government properties in their custody for their personal aggrandizement as everything in life is vanity upon vanity.

“We view that the latest action of the government is capable of brewing avoidable crisis which is being preluded by the peaceful protest organised by Idanre people, warning the government against tampering with, or snatching 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 government at all levels, including the one being operated in Ondo State, has 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 tragical than ever imagined.

“We hereby advise the APC-led government to put human face to governance, and for once, hold the people as worthy partners in governance, and treat them with dignity just as they remain the custodian of the mandate entrusted in their hands.”

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