Tiv farmers in Nasarawa State have accused the State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon Muhammad Iyimoga Oyigye of oppression.
The farmers alleged that Hon Oyigye is fabricating accusations and trying to use deceptive news reports to orchestrate serious violence with the aim to cause genocide.
The farmers in a statement made available to journalists in Lafia, alleged that the commissioner’s actions are in continuation of his long-standing oppressive tendencies against their community.
Speaking through their spokespersons, Joseph Faga, Vitalis Chiangi and Iorlaha Aloysius, the farmers alleged that soldiers were deployed to confiscate, harvest, and transport their rice on their farms under the guise of government ownership.
They also accused the Commissioner of deceiving the state government over agricultural projects by laying claims of ownership to more than 400 bags of rice cultivated in Jangwa, Awe Local Government Area.
According to the group, both as commissioner and as Chairman of Obi Local Government Area, Iyimoga has continuously shown “wholesale hatred and oppressive tendencies” toward the Tiv people.
“The least we expected from the Commissioner was a public apology for his demonic deeds. Instead, he has chosen to wash his dirty linen in public by using escapist and reductionist theories to save his image.
“His first assignment as Acting Commissioner of Agriculture was to deceive the state government into forcefully threshing our rice. He also lied about the availability of 10,000 hectares of virgin land in Obi LGA for rice cultivation.
“Now, to cover his misdeeds, the Commissioner has portrayed himself as an outlaw who flouts court orders. He even claimed to have harvested rice belonging to the government with armed soldiers—another lie.
“This time, he has taken more than we can keep quiet about. We are peasant farmers with families to feed, and his demonic act will go down in history,” they declared.
According to the group, the land in question is neither uninhabited nor virgin but belongs to them and is protected by a court injunction.
The group also accused the Commissioner, alongside the Sarkin Jangwa and the Chairman of Awe Local Government, of storing the confiscated rice in private residences.
They threatened to release pictorial evidence and disclose the locations of the warehouses if the Commissioner does not issue a public apology within 24 hours.
“We will reveal the damaging evidence of how the Commissioner, in conjunction with Sarkin Jangwa and the Nigerian Army, supervised the confiscation of our rice.
They will explain to the public when their private houses became government grain reserves,” the farmers added.
Responding to the accusations in an interview with journalists, Hon Iyimoga described the accusations as baseless and an attempt to divert attention from alleged theft by the farmers.
The Commissioner said the rice being harvested belonged to the state government.
“Government is not insane to harvest rice belonging to Tiv farmers.
“Those making this claims know the real reasons they are avoiding the farms. Some of them invaded and stole rice from government farms and we even arrested a few but later released them,” he said.
The Commissioner stated that the Tiv farmers were still harvesting their crops without interference.
“Anyone doubting this can visit the farms and see for themselves that their crops are intact,” he stated.
Hon Iyimoga also challenged the farmers to substantiate their claims. “If anyone says we harvested their rice, let them show us where. I will show you instances where the same individuals stole government property, including chemicals and bagged rice,” he argued.
He claimed that the presence of soldiers during the harvest was for maintaining law and order.
“We deployed three soldiers to strategic areas around the farm. This was not to intimidate anyone but to ensure peace, as the community has a history of unrest.The security was strictly for harvesting government rice, not anyone else’s crops,” he said.
