Suspected bandits have burnt down over 20 maize, soya bean and guinea corn farms on the outskirts of Kontagora, headquarters of Kontagora Local Government Area of Niger State.
They is also an information that the bandits would return to the community to cause more damages except a levy of N30 million is paid by each farmers.
A source said those who contacted the stated number were told their produce had been burnt and threatened to deal with them if they failed to pay the levy.
The source appealed to the federal and state governments to restore normalcy for farmers to go about their normal businesses by addressing the incessant attacks on farmers.
He said they just woke up to the sad incident, saying they went to their farms where they assembled their crops due for harvesting only for the crops to be set ablaze.
He lamented, “And notices in Arabic with a phone number were hung in our respective farms asking us to pay N30m levy each.”
He lamented that a farm which could yield about 50 bags of maize and another of about 60 bags of soybean were burnt down.
He said his farm had beans and Guinea corn ready for harvesting before it was burnt down.
There has been no response from security operatives on the incident as the state police spokesman could not be reached for comments.
Meanwhile, the Ekiti State Police Command has declared a 30-year-old man, Mr. Joseph Anifowose, missing.
This is contained in a statement signed Tuesday by the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abutu Sunday, in Ado-Ekiti.
He said Anifowose of Lane 6, Wonder City College, Ado-Ekiti, left home on November 6, at about 08:00hrs to an unknown football viewing centre and never returned.
Sunday said he is dark in complexion, six feet tall, speaks Yoruba and English languages fluently and has no tribal marks.
The command said it had commenced an investigation to unravel his whereabouts.
He urged anyone with useful information concerning his current location to contact the nearest police station or call 09064050086.