allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Health Hazard - Community At Odds With Foreign Investors (Page 1 of 3)

Farmers are threatening war against cement-manufacturing firms in Onigbedu, Ogun State for alleged illegal occupation of their land. They say the companies are exposing them to environmental and health hazards. Recently, the community petitioned Ogun State House of Assembly for intervention before the crisis degenerates like the Niger Delta situation.

Is foreign investment in solid minerals really a blessing or curse? This question still begs for answer in Onigbedu, a historic community in Ogun State blessed with limestone, clay and other precious stones. This natural endowment has attracted both local and foreign investors with billions of naira and promises to ensure infrastructural development as it ought to be.

But it is no longer at ease in the community. PureChem Industries Limited, a Chinese firm, alone has acquired more than one hundred acres of land in the town. Poreclainware Industries Limited said it acquired ten acres and claimed it had paid the land owners N10, 000 each for the parcel of land acquired. In all, the firm said it paid N300, 000 for ten acres of land.

Gateway Mining Limited, an indigenous firm, too claimed it had bought several acres of land in Onigbedu. It claimed it paid the land owners one million naira on one occasion and 1.6 million on another occasion. The firm claimed it made its final payment of N7.5 million for the land it acquired. It said Onigbedu Development Association (ODA) received the payment on behalf of the community and receipts were issued.

But the land-owning families in the community denied the receipt of money from Gateway Mining Limited, PureChem Industries Limited and Poreclainware Industries claimed they had paid them for the land. The families said they never sold parcels of land as the firms had claimed.

For alleged illegal occupation, the families threatened war, petitioned Ogun State House of Assembly for immediate mediation and had sent Gilmor Engineering Limited among other firms packing. In response, the House directed its Committee on Justice and Public Petition to investigate the root causes of internal rift in the town and ensure that peace reigns.

Chaired by Honourable Israel Solaja, the House Committee last week summoned Mr. Rasaki Alao, representative of Onigbedu Development Association and selected heads of land-owning families in the town to give account of what culminated in the brewing conflict.

When called to give testimony, Rasaki agreed he midwived a negotiation between the firms and Onigbedu Development Association. He also agreed he did not represent the interest of individual families that "own land in the town, though all the families are brought together under the association."

He said the elders conferred on him the power of attorney to represent the association and negotiate on their behalf. He thus debunked the claim of the firms that the land was sold to them. According to him, the elders made it clear to them from the beginning that their land was not for sale.

Rasaki explained that when the investors came, he said he approached the elders of the community. But the elders said they would send for their children in Lagos and other parts of the country to seek their advice on the development. After a while, the elders came together and agreed that they were not going to sell their land, though consented to lease the land.

Given the power of attorney conferred on him, Rasaki testified that there were agreement entered into between cement-manufacturing companies and the community. He named the heads of land-owning families that signed the agreement and consequently collected money. He said: "I am the representative of Onigbedu because I brought investor to the community. The heads of the land-owning families signed the agreement. Most of them are still alive. The companies also paid them for the parcels of land that were leased to them."

However, Rasaki declined accepting N7.5 million from Gateway Mining Limited, while he agreed to the receipt of N1 million and N1.6 million. He explained that the sum of N7.5 million had no cash backing. He said Alhaja Toibat Adeniji, chief executive officer; Gateway Mining Limited issued the receipt of N7.5 million in order to boost her stake before the foreign investors her firm invited to invest in Onigbedu.

"The receipt of N7.5 million has cash backing. Alhaja Toibat Adeniji issued it boost her stake. It was meant to prove to the foreign investors that she had invested so much in Onigbedu. She told me about it. I agreed with her. But there was no cash backing for the receipt," she said.

But Pa Ramon Akinmade, now 85 years old, debunked the claim that he received money from any of the cement-manufacturing companies. He said the resource was supposed to bring relief to the farmers in the community. Rather, he claimed it has been a threat to their lives and the generation unborn because of illegal occupation acquisition of their land and exploitation of the natural resources therein.

When THISDAY interviewed him last week, Pa Akinmade expressed concern over the threat the exploitation of the natural endowment had posed on the community and its dwellers at large. He said he was forced to abandon his cocoa plantation, his major source of income due to uncontrolled blasting of limestone by cement-manufacturing companies operating in the village. He said limestone "has been more of curse than blessing to the people in Onigbedu.

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