EDITORIAL: The Looming Crisis in Saki—How Land Grabbers and Compromised Security are Killing Genuine Investment and Industrialization in Oke-Ogun

By The Scribe | Ayekooto Media

The Land document handed over to Amb. David and The Foreign Partner

A dark cloud is gathering over Saki, the commercial nerve center of the Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State. What should be a thriving hub for agricultural investment, value-chain development, and industrialization is unfortunately, rapidly degenerating into a zone of lawlessness, banditry, thuggery, and intimidation. Alarmingly, this descent into chaos is seemingly being aided by complicit and complacent law enforcement officers employed by the government to protect life and property.

At the center of this brewing storm is the harrowing ordeal of Magdavies Nigeria Limited, chaired by Ambassador David Adejuwon. As a genuine investor of Oke-Ogun extraction, he brought legitimate foreign investors and technical partners from Hungary, Canada, and Taiwan to Saki East and Saki West. Their mission was to establish mechanized farms and a quarry industry to create jobs, generate wealth, reduce poverty, and contribute to both national food security and the sustainable economic development of the Oke-Ogun area. 

Amb. David Adejuwon partner's visit to Late Okere of Saki

Instead of reaping the dividends of investments made over the past fifteen years in Oyo State, Magdavies Nigeria Limited has sadly been subjected to a sustained campaign of terror. This assault is being orchestrated by notorious lawbreakers and land grabbers operating out of Iya Quarters, Saki. Worse still, they are working in concert with Bororos and illegal migrants from the Republic of Benin and Togo—many of whom these local syndicates have fraudulently assisted in obtaining National Identification Numbers (NIN).

The accounts emanating from the quarry site and the developed commercial farm are, to say the least, distressing. Armed miscreants, allegedly operating under the blind watch of local security operatives, have repeatedly invaded the company’s properties. They have vandalized quarry equipment, destroyed valuable perimeter concrete poles, and decimated the cashew plantations alongside other cash crops. Farm workers are routinely subjected to brutal physical assaults—including being forcefully dispossessed of personal belongings like mobile phones—while the lives of the workers, the owners, and the investments of Magdavies Nigeria Limited are threatened daily by these unrepentant lawbreakers.

While the brazen criminality of these land grabbers is appalling, what is far more dangerous is the alleged complicity of the local police, to whom this matter has been reported several times over the past year. According to the Ambassador, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Saki, CSP Kehinde Odubanjo—who is supposed to have taken decisive action on the matter—seems to have compromised his office for inexplicable reasons. Reports indicate that the local police division has bluntly refused to entertain formal complaints or provide protection to life and property, thereby actively aiding and abetting the nefarious activities of these gangs. Even appeals to traditional, religious, and political leaders have yielded no positive results to date, leaving the miscreants feeling invincible and above the law.

The Economic Sabotage of Oke-Ogun

The implications of this crisis stretch far beyond the boundaries of a single commercial farm. Saki, and by extension the entire Oke-Ogun region, desperately needs genuine investors to stimulate sustainable economic development, drive industrialization, contribute to global food security, and create jobs for the teeming youth population. 

How can we speak of wealth creation and poverty reduction when the investment environment is made entirely toxic by local hoodlums? No genuine investor will leave their comfort zone to inject capital into a community where the traditional institutions are helpless, and the security operatives act as accomplices to the destruction of private property. By failing to protect investments in the real sector, the compromised security apparatus in Saki is committing active economic sabotage against Oyo State and the Federal Government of Nigeria.

An Urgent Call for Intervention

If this impunity is not immediately checked, it will inevitably lead to a total breakdown of law and order and needless bloodshed. The people of Saki and prospective investors alike are watching, and their trust in the system is hanging by a thread.

Ayekooto Media urgently calls on the highest security echelons in the country to bypass the compromised local structures and intervene directly without hesitation:

To the Inspector General of Police: We call upon your office—which received a formal petition written by the company’s legal counsel months ago—to order an immediate, independent investigation into the activities of the Saki Police Division and the conduct of CSP Kehinde Odubanjo and other officers named in the petition.

To the Director-General of the DSS and the Comptroller General of Immigration: We urge you to deploy intelligence officers to dismantle this notorious gang and apprehend their illegal foreign collaborators operating out of Iya Quarters.

To the Oyo State Government and the Commissioner of Police: We appeal to the proactive Oyo State CP and the State Government to act swiftly to protect the lives of the workers, the owners, and the valuable property of Magdavies Nigeria Limited, to prevent victims from resorting to self-help.

Security is the absolute bedrock of sustainable economic growth and development. Saki East, Saki West, and Oke-Ogun in general cannot afford to become a graveyard for foreign and local investments. The time to act is now. A stitch in time saves nine.

David Alani Ige 

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Ayekooto Media

publisher@ayekootomediang.com