A farm belonging to former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, Orchard Farm on Saturday got destroyed by fire.
Obasanjo had planted mango and orange trees on the 2,420 hectares of farmland at Howe, a few kilometres away from Aliade, headquarters of Gwer East local government area of Benue State.
There were claims that the farm might have been set on fire by youths to express their grievances for not paying compensation for the land.
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The development was confirmed by the state State fire Service director, Donald Ikyaaza.
Ikyaaza who noted that his men were deployed to the farm said, “Yes, I discharged my men to that place immediately and the portion we met, we were able to put out the fire outrightly.”
Ikyaaza said that he received information that the people in the area decided to set fire on the farm due to the issue of compensation.
He said, “The exact cause of the fire my men who went there said the people were fighting for compensation for land. Maybe the land was not adequately compensated for so that’s why they decided to set fire on the farm.
“That is the only information I got from them.”
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Ikyaaza, however, lamented that his men who attended to the fire incident were robbed and beaten by suspected robbers on their way back to Makurdi.
According to him, “In fact, my men while coming back in the night, armed robbers caught them, beat them seriously and collected all their handsets, so that was the compensation we (firefighters) got for fighting the fire at Obasanjo’s farm.
“Not all the farm was burnt. Some trees are still there, the seeds were saved.”
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