By Olasunkanmi Akoni

Members of the concerned land owner’s association of Igbesa Town, Ogun State, have protested against the management of a company, largely occupied by Chinese Companies over an alleged forceful encroachment and acquisition of large expanse of land, demolishing houses, farms and other amenities in the process.

The protesters converged peacefully on Captain David Road in Igbesa with placards expressing their grievances against the Chinese companies which they alleged have systematically been encroaching on their land, using armed Mobile Policemen, Nigeria Army, DSS, Armed thugs and all sorts of intimidations to forcefully takeover lands from them beyond what was officially allotted them in 2007.

Ajose Solomon, the Chairman of the Association, who spoke on behalf of the group during the protest said, “Our community was approached in 2007 by an entourage led by Mrs. Badru Salimot, the former Deputy Governor of Ogun state to solicit for large expense of land for industrial purposes.

“Though they promised to develop road networks, provide electricity, pipe borne water, job opportunities and other amenities, yet our people in Igbesa were skeptical and refused to cede their lands to them for acquisition.

“They left Igbesa afterwards to Ejila-Awori a nearby community to negotiate and got 12 villages who gave them 400 hectares of land which they fenced up and later abandoned, owing to the topography of the place and in inaccessibility, making them to come back to Igbesa where some of our people betrayed their good conscience to give about 250 hectares to them,” he added.

Ajose corroborated his assertion by showing reporters, Survey Maps, indicating areas acquired by the Chinese and the vast lands belonging to the community which were not originally ceded to theme, but form part of the land that is presently encroached on by the Chinese-managed Guadong Free Trade Zone.

A representative of the company, one Ajayi Kabir, who introduced himself as a staff said the the Group Managing Director, GMD was not on seat to attend to journalists who visited the company but promised to organise a meeting where the management would respond to the allegations by the community.

However, after a week of waiting the company has refused to make an official statement.

Ajose, however, said the company has nothing valid to say, saying, “What they claim to be the land space allocated to them cannot be verified from the Ogun State Bureau of Lands and Survey neither are they gazetted with the State Ministry of Justice.”

Owolabi Kehinde who said he was the first Chairman of the Igbesa Community Association corroborated the assertions of Ajose by saying; “In addition to what Ajose said, in 2007 Governor Gbenga Daniel sent a delegation to Igbesa, led by the Deputy Governor with Alhaji Gbenga Isiaka in the delegation, to ask the community to release part of their land for the establishment of the Guadong Free Trade Zone, which we resisted at first, but after a lot of consultation, we decided to lease part of our land.

“A survey was carried out resulting in the release of about 225 hectares of land from Igbesa and about 400 hectares from Ejila Awori, afterwards enumeration was carried out and compensation paid.

“In 2017, to our dismay, the Guadong management started extending beyond their allotted land space into our farmlands and houses, demolishing every structure found on the land. We confronted them peacefully but our cries fell on deaf ears resulting in peaceful protests carried by our people from time to time.

“Rather than the management listening to us, they resorted to the use of the Nigeria Police Officers to hound and arrest our people, particularly Hon. Ajose who was picked to the force headquarters in Abuja, dragged to court, and after several appearances, he was discharged and acquitted.

“At the moment they closed the only access road to Ajure Imota from Igbesa stopping the residents from accessing modern amenities, including; banking, hospitals, schools, and others. Chemicals from their factories have destroyed our major source of water, killing all the aquatic life and making it undrinkable.”

However, in the course of the protest, a large number of Mobile Policemen were deployed to stop the protest but were restrained because of the reporters they found covering the protest, prompting the officers to peacefully address the protesters, asking them to be peaceful in expressing their grievances which they said the company will look into appropriately.