Stop further encroachment on our farmland – Orogho community warns oil firm
Crisis looms in Orogho community, Orhionmwon Local Government Area, Edo State, as Indigenes have issued serious warning to Presco Plc to desist from laying claim to the purported 2,500 hectares of land allegedly allocated to them by the state government.
The community categorically claimed that they were not consulted by the government for such transaction.
This was contained in an open letter addressed to Presco Plc titled “Provocative encroachment of Orogho land by Presco Plc’ signed by Orogho Concerned Indigenes, Elders in Council and Opinion Leaders and made available to newsmen in Benin City.
The communique stated: “They were highly disturbed by the speculation that their land has been given to Presco Plc by the state government without their consent.
“The 14,400 hectares earlier given to them have not been fully utilized therefore, the company does not deserve another of their land coupling with the fact that they were not carried along in the process of alleged contentious acquisition of the 2,500 hectares of land.
“The ongoing speculation that Presco Plc has been allocated 2,500 hectares by the state government is a ruse, unfounded and far from the truth. The land belongs to Orogho and not even the government, any person or group of persons talk less Delta State”, the statement said.
“With regard and respect to the constituted authority, there was formal consultations with us, the state government and our Benin monarch before Approval and certificate of occupation was issued over the 14,400 hectares which you are yet to develop.
“Orogho land cannot be given out without our consent. For ages, it has been our ancestral land without dispute from successive governments even before the advent of the white men.”
The statement further said: “Prior to the enactment of land use decree 1978, the people of the community have had indelible ancestral right to the farm land of which, a part of about 14,000 hectares acquired through our royal father, Oba Erediauwa.
“The occasion was greeted with mutual acceptance by the people as it was aimed at developing the area therefore, the present area occupied by Presco is a an undisputable Orogho land and does not belong to Sokponba as misconstrued by Presco Plc.”
The group in their statement however frowned at the wrongful naming of their farm land as Sakpomba Estate instead of Orogho Estate.
It alleged that the company’s assertion that the people of the community and its environs constitute a reasonable percentage of its work force (unskilled) labour was a hoax as the Deltans make up the 80 labour, a deviating approach from the spirit of local content development policy of the federal government.
The communique further said that the protracted depletion of the indigenes from skilled and unskilled appointments suggested a grand scheme of alienation of the people who own the land.
