Rivers communities protest allocation of farmlands to Mexican firm

The communities and individual owners of the farms claimed they were not paid compensation for their lands seized by the government. Rivers State Government had in 2011 signed a contractual agreement with a Mexican firm, Union De initiative S.A. De C.V., for a commercial banana and plantain mass production in the state. The project, which […]

The communities and individual owners of the farms claimed they were not paid compensation for their lands seized by the government.
Rivers State Government had in 2011 signed a contractual agreement with a Mexican firm, Union De initiative S.A. De C.V., for a commercial banana and plantain mass production in the state.
The project, which has since commenced, affected more than 15,000 families in Nyo Khana, Tai and Babbe kingdoms who have been using the affected lands for their subsistence farming.
The families whose lands were acquired by the government for the project have been at logger heads with the government over what they called forceful acquisition of their farmland by the authorities without paying them compensation.
A group that claimed to be fronting for the farmers, Ogoni Solidarity Forum, in conjunction with a Port Harcourt based Human Rights Organisation, the Social Action, had in 2012 threatened to stop the project.
Addressing a news conference in Port Harcourt, the group said the communities were deeply concerned over grave human rights abuses and breach of due process by Rivers State Government in acquisition of 2,000 hectares of land to enable a Mexican firm to undertake a commercial banana farm project.
Akpo-Bari Celestine of Social Action who spoke on behalf of the group, said various interest groups were outraged that the state government, within 24 hours of a written request in May 2011, got a provisional approval by some paramount rulers in the area to take as much land as required without the knowledge of 30,000 families whose land were to be acquired.
Sources from the community told our reporter that the affected families were not consulted and only knew about the project when a large number of military men from the Joint Military Taskforce stormed the communities to accompany surveyors that went to map the land given to the foreign firm by the government.
The government was said to have consulted few prominent indigenes of Ogoni on the planned acquisition of the land. Some of those said to have been consulted were from Tai.
Akpobari told reporters that the Ogoni people were totally opposed to the perceived seizure of their land.  
The families of the affected areas had in 2012 taken the state government to court over the purported land acquisition. While the matter was subsisting in court, the state government appeared to be defiant and claimed the land.
Dumnamene Fyneface , the project officer of Ogoni solidarity forum, said most of the families that were present when the military and some government officials came to survey the land, were subjected to abuse and threats, a claim that could not be independently established.
No fewer than 30 persons were alleged to have been arrested by the agents of the government since the problem started in 2012. In Zor-Sogho community alone, about 30 persons were arrested. The state chapter of the Civil Liberty Organisation has condemned the arrest and invasion of the community land by the agents of the government.
Rivers State Governor Chibuike Amaechi said the banana plantation was established to boost the state’s economy and create jobs for the teeming youths of the state.
He said the produce from the plantation will increase food supply to the state and also provide enough for sale to other states.
During the maiden harvest of banana and plantain from the Mexican farm, many dignitaries including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Governor Amaechi and a host of others graced the occasion.