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Driven from their homes by herdsmen, Tiv youths turn Kogi community into food basket

Timilehin Abaenogbe

Kajola Market, Ayetoro Gbede in the Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State, is always busy with activities every other five days when market men and women from virtually all over Kogi, Ekiti and Ondo states gather for the purpose of buying and selling,

The market men and women that patronize the market deal more in farm products, mainly root crops, vegetables, processed food stuffs and grains amongst others.

On a particular market day in late February, 2021, when DAILY POST reporter was at the market on a casual visit, a group of youths later understood to be of Tiv origin in Benue State were spotted.

On this particular day, the Tiv youths, who were attired in t-shirts bearing Tiv Youths Association, Ijumu LGA, were in a meeting that was obviously well attended at a corner in the expansive market.

In other areas of the market are places that have come to be known as yam depots, where trucks of various sizes are seen loading healthy tubers of yam for transportation to other parts of the country, especially Lagos.

Sources in the town, who spoke to this reporter, also disclosed that aside yams, the community and others within Ijumu LGA have become centres of commercial activities for vegetables, cassava, and rice farming among many others. This, according to sources, is courtesy of the Tiv youths who came to the communities with their farming skills and expertise.

A community leader and one of the sub-Obas in Ayetoro Gbede, Chief Enoch Maiye, attributed the new found status of his community to the coming of Tiv people and the way they were received and accommodated by the community.

“The Ayetoro community and Ijumu people in general are very accommodating people and that’s what we have extended to Tiv people and off course that has made them feel at home and encouraged them to do their farming. They are comfortable in our communities and well received by all and sundry. You cannot take that away from the success they have recorded”, he said.

On the new food basket status of the communities, Chief Enoch said, though one cannot take away the fertility of the land in the area, most of the credit goes to the Tiv people, as the people of the area has for years been engaged in small scale farming but they are engaging in large

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