Idowu Oluseyi, a land agent popularly known as ‘Biggy’, has defrauded two farmers of N500,000 in Ido town, Oyo State.

Olugbemi Celestine, one of the victims, said Oluseyi leased 13 acres of land to him at N5,000 per acre. On May 5, 2021, he paid a year’s rent of N65,000.

Later, the land agent suggested that he could help with the clearing of the land if contracted to do so.

“I paid him N195,000 in full after contracting the clearing of land to him,” Celestine told FIJ. “He said he could also cultivate the land if contracted to him. I paid him N15,000 for the cultivation of nine acres. I believed him because he was supposed to be an agent.”

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However, in June, Celestine visited the farmland and realised that only five acres had been cleared out of 13 and the land cultivated was barely an acre.

“I drew his attention to what I had seen, telling him to fix the farmland, but he kept ‘dribbling’ me. He would always assure me of getting a good value for my money but, till now, I am speechless on how he left the land empty, “Celestine said.

Celestine’s woes did not end there, as someone he referred to Oluseyi had the same experience and lost N105,000 in the process. He explained that Adedoyin Afolabi, a member of Farmer’s Page, a WhatsApp group, met with Oluseyi, who leased three acres of land to her.

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As he did to Celestine, Oluseyi presented himself to Afolabi as the one to clear and cultivate the land just to help her achieve her goal. He got the money but did not tend to the farmland.

“I visited the land in June, a month after I had paid Oluseyi, only to see nothing. I told him to call the labourers to order as I was not impressed with what I saw. I bought herbicides and paid for everything he said he needed, but he failed to do what he said,” Afolabi told FIJ.

“What left me broken was how I felt stupid talking to the sponsors of the farm. When they requested a picture, I couldn’t present any because he did nothing. The shocker is that the same land he leased to Celestine was also what he leased to me.”

Afolabi asked Celestine why he would send the contact of someone known by people in Ido as dubious. But he explained that, like her, he got Oluseyi’s contact from a WhatsApp group.

Celestine, who lost about N395,000 to Oluseyi, said he is now heavily indebted and traumatised.

When FIJ spoke with Oluseyi, he asked that Afolabi and Celestine reached out to him and then ended the call. He refused to answer subsequent calls and also did not respond to a text message sent to him.