By Ighomuaye Lucky. O
The people of Ologbo-Nugu Community in Orhionmwon Local Government Area of Edo State, have called on the management of Barnsley Oil Palm PLC (Saro Farms) to honour its agreement of ceding 250 hectares of land to them for their farming activities, saying that they are dying of hunger.
This was contained in a statement signed by Comrade Godwin Erhahon, national leader, Ologbo-Nugu Community and made available to journalists in Benin City.
He said the people of the community are not opposed to the investment of SARO in their land as they welcome it as great industrial development by the governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration but not without their stake in the project properly defined.
According to Erhahon, “What we are protesting is the very crude, barbaric, oppressive and exploitative approach by which SARO grabbed our land without leaving space for our community to farm.
“You can imagine them taking over 600 hectares of our farmland, leaving less than 50 hectares for us the rightful landlords.
“But they lied to the governor that they left 250 hectares for us. They carry many soldiers along with them to intimidate our people both in their farms and in the community whenever they have to meet with our people.
“They refused to discuss terms of their occupation of the land: they refused our community to engage their experts to join company’s enumerators in the assessment of crops for compensation.
“They refused to discuss royalty.
“They prepared a one-sided Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and took to the community for their leaders to sign but the community rejected it.
“As we said earlier, we are not against SARO investing on our land but we insist that we have the right to decide what part and size of our land we can spare to them.
“Not they, in their sadist capitalists mentality chosing for us.
“To reciprocate the respect that the governor has accorded us, we will consider the only 250 hectares if allocated to us in our chosen location”.
On the part of the Odionwere of the community, Pa Aduwa Osaigbovo, he said when the state government came to approach them for the lands to be given to the company to carry out their palm plantation farm, it was agreed that 250 hectares of the land would be given to the people of the community to farm but surprisingly, the company has gone to the said land, uprooted their already planted crops, saying that they can only be entitled to 50 hectares of land and which they (the people of the community) said it is impossible as it will not be enough to carry out their farming occupation.
He said ever since, they have been dying of hunger and starvation as they have no land to farm anymore.
Pa Osaigbovo said they have gone to the palace of the Oba of Benin and the state governor to complain about the activities of the SARO’s company and they are still waiting for their responses.
He however appealed to the concerned authorities to wade in and help them secure their lands back if not all, at least, the 25 hectares earlier promised.
Also lending their voices to the plights of the community, Felix Osemwengie Isere and
Osamudiamen A. Osula, both solicitors to the community, said while the company is yet to meet any of the mutual agreements reached with the community, all attempt made by their client to resolve the issues have proven abortive.
According to them “That to the great consternation of the client, the delineation of lands was done by your company alone and only 50 hectares were now allocated to our client as Burfa while your company has commenced work.
“That all attempts by our client to amicably resolve this issue with you have been unsuccessful as you have continued to use men of the Nigerian Army to intimidate, harass and threaten them whenever they protest to the land.
“As Solicitors to the community and with their instruction, we are formally writing to notify you of the unacceptable behaviour and harassment that the community people have been experiencing from you. It has come to our attention that the promised Burfa (farmland), which was agreed upon to be given to our client, has not been fulfilled as per the agreement. We would like to remind you of the commitment made to provide the farmland to our client for their use and benefit.
“The continued delay and refusal to fulfil this agreement are causing distress and hardship to client members who are in need of land for their livelihood.
“We hereby request that you immediately cease any further action in the land and the harassment towards our client and expedite the process of transferring the farmland to their use. Failure to comply with this request will result in legal action being taken against you.
“We urge you to act in good faith and uphold the agreement that was made in the best interest of the client.
“If we do not get a response from you within the next two weeks to confirm your intention to fulfil this agreement, we will have no other option than to take legal action against your company in the court of law on behalf of our client”.
In a swift reaction from the representative of Barnsley Oil Palm Plc (Saro Farms), Dr. Tunde Faturonti, he said journalist who wants any information about the land should seek that from the state government.
He further said that, the Managing Director of the Edo State Investment Promotion Office (ESIPO), Mr. Kelvin Uwaibi can shed light on the issues on ground.
Contacting Mr. Kelvin Uwaibi, he said “this is the period of propaganda; whoever told the media about the Saro farms story may not be saying the truth as there is need for all parties including the media to sit down and find out what went wrong.
“For someone to have mentioned his name, that is why he suggests all parties should sit down to discuss as he would not understand why his name was mentioned”