By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
Over 20 maize, soya beans and guinea corn farms on the outskirts of Kontagora, headquarters of Kontagora Local Government Area of Niger State, have been torched by suspected bandits.
A source explained that the bandits asked them to pay N30m levy each or face further attacks by dropping notes for them on their various farms.
Those who called the number, according to the source, said that they were told that the speakers confirmed to them that they burnt the crops they had assembled on their farms and threatened to further deal with them if they failed to pay the imposed levy.
He appealed to the federal and state governments to find a way of addressing the incessant attacks on farmers in order to restore normalcy for farmers to about their normal businesses.
He said that they just woke up to this sad incident, saying that they went to their farms where they assembled their crops that were due for harvest and were almost done with the assembling before bringing them home, only for the crops to be set ablaze.
He lamented, “And notices in Arabic with a phone number were hung at our respective farms, asking us to pay N30m levy each.”
Of the farms that were burnt down, he said there is one where you could not have less than 50 bags of maize if harvested, adding that there was another one of soybean, the owner would not get less than 60 bags if harvested.
On his own farm, there were guinea corn and beans that he had assembled for processing before bringing them home, lamenting all of them were set ablaze.
There was no response from security operatives on the incident as the state police spokesman could not be reach for comment.
