The apex Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has issued a grave warning regarding the rising wave of violence, abductions, and killings targeted at farmers across Nigeria’s South-West geopolitical zone. In an official statement issued in Ibadan on Friday, August 21, 2026, the group cautioned that unchecked insecurity will plunge the region into a severe food security crisis and collapse rural livelihoods. ​
Speaking on behalf of the organisation in Ibadan, Oyo State, Afenifere’s National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, revealed that extensive field engagements and visits to agrarian hubs, including the Oke-Ogun area and northern sectors of Oyo and Ondo states, showed that thousands of farmers are abandoning their farmlands. ​
According to Ajayi, three primary factors are driving farmers away from production: The Pervasive Fear of Abduction and Violence, Persistent armed attacks and ransom demands by bandits and criminal gangs. The Destructive Open Grazing system that unscrupulous herders allowing cattle to destroy unharvested crops with impunity and The Price Exploitation by Middlemen, Exorbitant markups by intermediaries (Onibaranda) standing between rural producers and direct buyers, severely shrinking farmer revenues.
​To underscore the severity of the crisis across the six South-Western states, Ajayi detailed recent casualty reports; In Oyo State, the recent murder of four farmers in the Oke-Ogun agrarian belt. Ogun State recorded the abduction of 33-year-old poultry farmer, Mr. Ooreoluwa Osonuga, in Ikenne. Osun State has an ongoing captivity of Hon. Debo Farounbi, who was kidnapped on June 9, 2026, in Ora.
Abductors have refused to release him despite receiving a ₦30 million ransom and are demanding further payments and motorcycles. Ondo State where the tragic killing of a female farmer and a deadly ambush in the Ago-Oyinbo farm settlement in Akure North, which resulted in the operational deaths of four Amotekun Corps personnel. ​
Referencing data from the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) and international bodies like the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Afenifere noted that agricultural activity in parts of Yorubaland has dropped by approximately 40%. ​
The organization urged South-West governors and federal security forces to immediately deploy robust military interventions, increase forest patrols, integrate local vigilante networks into intelligence sharing, and strictly enforce anti-open grazing laws to save the region’s agricultural sector from total collapse.
