Fifty- five communities from Ovia North East, Uhunmwode, Owan West, and Owan East Council Local Government Areas, on Friday, marched in the streets of Edo State to protest against the acquisition of their communities’ rainforest reserve and farmland by Governor, Godwin Obaseki.
The protest which took place at Uhonmora, Owan West Local Government Area of the State, decried the governor’s alleged penchant for land acquisition despite the pending court cases on the matter.
The communities accused the Governor of ceding their lands to his friends and political allies.
Addressing journalists after the protest, Mr. Tony Erah, said the Governor acted in defiance of pending court cases and several petitions written by the communities concerning the matter.
Erah pointed out the case with the number: ECW/CCJ/APP/22/22. is before the Court of the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS), Abuja.
He explained that instead of the governor suspending action pending the court ruling on the court matter, he deployed bulldozers to destroy crops and other economic trees on their lands.
They accused Obaseki of insensitivity to the plight of the people adding that his constant harassment and intimidation of the communities with law enforcement agencies, such as the police, civil defense, and vigilante groups, is unjustified.
Erah stressed that the communities would not relent on the matter until the Governor removes himself from their land.
“Today, the over 55 communities,
supported by the Owan General Assembly, the Tabitha Women Prayers Group, a global charity
with headquarters in Belgium and the United Kingdom, the Nature Conservation Observance of the United States of America and indigenes of our communities at home and in the diasporas, are intensely opposed to the movement of bulldozers by the Edo State Government (EDSG) and its proxy companies to our two remaining ancestral rainforest biodiversity-rich 10 and Lulea/Ora/Ozalla consisting the Owan Forest Zone (OFZ)
“Obaseki’s insistent on grabbing, bulldozing, and replacing our biodiversity-rich forest lands and our crops with mono-crop oil palm, for open grazing and mining, to Fayus Nigeria Ltd, Saturn Ltd, A & Hatman Limited, and several other of his almighty business friends and owners of the local multinational companies
means robbing our poor of the poor to defend superbly rich associates
“After months of arm twisting, blackmail, and intimidation of our poor villagers with heavily armed policemen, soldiers, civil defense corps and other security men, the public machinery of the state has finally been deployed with the bringing of the bulldozers for the forced possession, cruel destruction of the forest biodiversity, our farmlands, and livelihood
“This is despite that our various communities and organizations had severally briefed and wrote petitions to the state government that it’s ceding of our remaining forest reserve land is an illegal act.”
