Emma Okonji

A Kwara State farmer and Chief Executive Officer of Versa Farms, Nigeria’s largest tomato farm, Ibrahim Toyeeb, has condemned the recent spate of deadly attacks across Kwara State, calling for urgent intervention to protect lives and safeguard the region’s fragile economy.

Toyeeb, whose company is one of the largest employers of labour in the area, expressed deep pain at the killings and displacement of residents.

He warned that unless decisive action was taken, Kwara South would risk becoming an economic dead zone, driving away investors and undermining the livelihoods of thousands of people.

Toyeeb said this in a statement following the coordinated attacks on communities in Kwara South and neighbouring areas, including Oke-Ode in Ifelodun Local Government Area, which left scores dead, several injured and many abducted.

While mourning the victims, Toyeeb called on Senator Oyelola Ashiru, who represents Kwara South in the Senate, and Hon Raheem Tunji Olawuyi, who chairs the House Committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness, to show leadership by spearheading a coordinated response to protect lives, restore investor confidence, and save the region from economic collapse.

He said: “I mourn every life taken. I mourn every family displaced. I mourn every field left untended. My people sleep in fear. Silence from those elected to protect us is not neutrality, it is, to us, abandonment. We call on Senator Ashiru and Hon Olawuyi to show leadership, to convene security partners, and to secure our communities now. Why has this situation not been mentioned boldly on the floor of the National Assembly? Representation without advocacy is no representation at all.”

Toyeeb emphasised that the appeal was a practical call for a sequence of immediate actions that, he believed, would arrest the crisis and begin the work of recovery.

He called for the deployment of targeted security reinforcements to affected communities, identification and secure of vulnerable points, establishment of a joint federal-state security task force with clear lines of command and public reporting.

The farmer also said relevant authorities should conduct rapid humanitarian assessments and provide urgent relief to displaced families, launch a transparent investigation into the attacks and publish a time-bound action plan, and convene local leaders, security officials and civil society to create community-led protection measures.

He also urged the state governor and security agencies to sustain the recent measures announced in the wake of the attacks and to prioritise intelligence-led operations that protect civilians while upholding the rule of law.

He welcomed calls by the state executive for increased military and security deployments to the affected areas, and stated that any of such deployments be paired with clear, local engagement and relief for victims.

Highlighting the economic implications, he said:  “Insecurity is destroying Kwara South’s investment potential. If farms close and businesses pull out, families lose their livelihoods, poverty deepens, and the area becomes economically crippled.”

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