The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State has condemned the new ₦250,000 per hectare levy imposed by the Aiyedatiwa-led administration on cocoa farmers operating within forest reserves, describing the policy as extortionate, insensitive, and economically destructive. In a strongly worded statement signed by its Director of Media and Public Communications, Wándé T. Àjàyí, the opposition party accused the state government of using the guise of the European Union Deforestation-Free Regulation (EUDR) to exploit poor farmers while favouring politically connected investors.
According to the PDP, the new policy requires every cocoa farmer to pay ₦150,000 for polygon mapping and an additional ₦100,000 for a five-year agro-forestry permit, bringing the total to ₦250,000 per hectare. The party noted that most smallholder farmers operate between one and three hectares, meaning they would now be forced to pay between ₦250,000 and ₦750,000 upfront at a time when cocoa prices have crashed by more than 50 percent and production costs have surged.
“The government is strangling the very people who feed the state’s economy,” the statement read. “Farmers are being coerced into paying an impossible levy in a year when the farm-gate price of cocoa has plummeted from ₦14,000 to ₦6,000 per kilogram, while inflation, fuel costs, and taxation have all skyrocketed. This is nothing short of fiscal torture.”
The PDP warned that the policy could push thousands of smallholder farmers out of production, trigger mass unemployment, and worsen deforestation, the very problem the government claims to be addressing. Àjàyí described the decision as economically irrational and environmentally counterproductive, insisting that it will only create uncertainty for generational farmers and drive them into unregulated forest areas.
The party further alleged that while smallholders are being punished, large-scale investors and government-linked firms continue to enjoy privileged access to land and state incentives. It said the dual standard approach of the administration exposes the hypocrisy behind its sustainability rhetoric and pointed out that under the same government, a ₦9 billion state-owned chocolate factory remains comatose, symbolising Ondo’s policy inconsistency and economic inertia.
The opposition party argued that the government has misinterpreted the European Union’s EUDR policy, explaining that the regulation calls for traceability and transparency, not taxation. Àjàyí stated that across Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, similar compliance programmes are government-subsidised, not farmer-funded. He maintained that the European Union never instructed states to extort farmers but advocates inclusive mapping, community participation, and sustainability support.
The PDP has therefore called on Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa to immediately suspend the ₦250,000 levy and convene a stakeholder meeting involving farmer cooperatives, traditional rulers, and environmental experts to review the policy. It also demanded a full public disclosure of all mapping contracts, payment breakdowns, and beneficiary firms to ensure transparency and accountability. The opposition advised the government to adopt a shared-cost sustainability model, where the state supports mapping and reforestation rather than forcing peasant farmers to bear the entire financial burden.
The party warned that if the policy is not reversed, Ondo risks losing its place as Nigeria’s cocoa heartland, with devastating consequences for the local economy. Àjàyí stated that the farmers who feed this economy must not be punished for trying to survive in a system rigged against them and emphasised that sustainability must not become a new word for suffering.
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