The National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kabiru Ibrahim, has advised peasants to establish special vigilantes and protect themselves from attacks.
He stated this against the backdrop of rising insecurity across parts of the country, which has resulted in the high cost of foodstuffs.
While farmers allay the fears of bandit attacks in the North, the herder-farmer crisis is dominant in the South-West.
In the South-East, the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra have been accused of causing the insecurity situation in the South-East.
For instance, it was gathered that bandits had taken over most farms in Zamfara State while demanding levies before they would allow peasants access to their farms.
Recently, a group of peasants in the Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State protested against the incessant attacks on their farms by alleged herders.
They appealed to the state government to intervene in the matter, alleging that the herdsmen persisted in their destructive activities.
Analysing the implications of the situation, the World Bank, in its latest Food Security report, predicted that seven northern regions of the country would suffer a severe food crisis due to the high level of insecurity.
Concerned about the level of insecurity, the AFAN president said the farmers as well as other Nigerians must focus on tackling the security situation in the country to avert imminent starvation.
He added that the inability of farmers to access their farms to cultivate crops had worsened the food production process.
He, however, stated that security agencies were overwhelmed, hence the need for farmers to protect themselves.
He said, “The farmers should form vigilante groups to secure their farmland and protect themselves wherever possible. If farmers are not able to go to farms, the nation will starve. The insecurity challenges are adversely affecting the food production system.
“The security situation cannot be phased out once. It is a work in progress. It is empirical; you can see that the security situation is overwhelming for the security agencies because it cuts across all of the country.”
