Nigeria: Help! Wicked People Have Sold Our Farmlands, Now We Have Nothing to Live On

3 March 2007

Lagos — For several days these women were on the streets of Benin, protesting the destruction of their farm lands in Iguomokhua community of Orhiomwon local government council area of Edo state. They kept vigil for several days at the palace of the revered Benin monarch, the Oba of Benin so that he would intervene in what they described as the wicked act of some of their chiefs who sold their farmlands. They have gone to the state Commissioner for Environment, Mr Fashanu Udofe, whose ministry oversees the Forestry Department but unfortunately, he refused to listen to their cry. Even when Saturday Vanguard met him for his comments on the issue, he angrily declared that "I do not have any thing to say about it, please leave me alone."

Princess Theresa Osazuwa who led the protest cried that if their lands were not returned to them, their children may become criminals and prostitutes because they may no longer feed them. She appealed to the Benin monarch and the state government to urgently come to their rescue since most of them were widows. Excerpts:

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