Over Sales Of Land, Okumagbe of Uwanno Kingdom Continues To Attack Iviukwe Community.
We are calling on the President of Nigeria and all the Nigerian forces to please rescue Iviukwe Community from tyranny.
Iviukwe Community has first cried out during November and December 2021 but the Okumagbe continues to attack the community.
Chief Amos Asegiemhe is in State CID Benin as we speak by the order of the Okumagbe after he was first beaten at Agenebode yesterday.
Recall that, Leadership newspaper first report that the alleged acquisition of a large expanse of land in Iviukwe community of Etsako East local government area of Edo State for a fertiliser factory has generated fresh protest in the area. Residents of the community who have embarked on a protest, accused their leaders of illegal sales of their ancestral land.
The disputed land was allocated to a fertiliser company by former governor Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole. But the protesters claimed they were not carried along in the alleged deal. The case is already before the Edo State High Court in Agenebode, the council headquarters.
The land covers an area of approximately 448.159 hectares (over 3.36 kilometres) more particularly marked and delineated in the Survey Plan No. IDC/22 attached to the documents before the court.
The community sued their monarch, the Okumagbe of Weppa Wanno for carrying the deal without involving the rightful owners of the land. It joined Dangote Fertiliser Company in the case of “paying our crops’ money to Okumagbe instead of us.” The Edo State government and the attorney-general of the state are also joined in the matter.
“When Dangote Company replied to the lawsuit, it claimed that it paid N130 million for crops and royalty, and also paid for the land. That the Edo State government told him what to pay and he paid it. Hence, we sued the Edo State government for N1 billion for the proceeds of the sale of our land,” the community chairman, Chief Adolphus Ozekhome said.
They accused their monarch and others of selling the land to the fertiliser firm on the guise that it was for development purposes. The excuse was that compensation would be paid for destroying the economic trees and crops on the land.
Apart from protesting around the community and the adjourning towns, they went to register the case in the office of the AIG in Benin, the state capital. The inscription in one the placards they carried, “Iviukwe Not for Sale.”
Trouble started recently when the certificate of occupancy (C-of-O) that was issued to Dangote Fertiliser Company Ltd by the Oshiomhole administration was tendered in court by counsel to the firm in order to prove the fact that the land was sold to the company. The documents showed that the C-of-O was issued to the company on June 3, 2013.
Those who spoke with LEADERSHIP say they are in court to reclaim their land since the fertiliser company has failed to establish the plant after eight years. “We want our land back. This is over eight years. They told us to give them land for development purposes because we told them we are not selling it. The company bulldozed the entire land. Curiously, past mid-2013, the company packed up and left.
“Meanwhile, we were waiting for some documents about the land deal to be signed. All of a sudden, by late 2013, we were told that Dangote Fertiliser Company has no use for our land anymore and that it has left. But he has paid the sum of N63 million for the crops he damaged. Okumagbe then said he took N6 million as tax to himself and was giving the balance of N57 million to Iviukwe community as compensation on the destroyed economic crops,” said one of the claimants, Moses Adojor.
When contacted for more comments on the issue, a lawyer to the fertilizer company failed to respond to messages to his telephone line. As at the time of filing this report, he neither responded to calls nor text messages.
In a response to the court, counsel to Egabo, from BOSSEY & Co, Barrister P.I. Bossey, faulted the community’s claims, saying the land owners, principal representatives and traditional ruler of the community were part of the series of town hall meetings both in the palace of the village head of Iviukwe, Chief Alubi Okega and at the royal palace of the Okumagbe of Weppa Wanno Kingdom, Agenebode, to discuss the allocation of the land to the company for the construction of the plant.
Bossey said, “The entire Iviukwe community and the Okumagbe of Weppa Wanno were made to understand through Edo State government representatives that the fertiliser project is a public private partnership project being executed or jointly financed by Dangote Group of Company and the Edo State government, that the land allocated to the Dangote Fertiliser Ltd was part of the state government’s contribution to the project and that compensation will not be paid for land but only for the crops and every member of the community agreed to this.”