Houses already marked without any agreement with villagers, says village chief
No fewer than six communities in Ogun State would be demolished in the next few weeks to pave way for the expansion of Dangote Cement factory- and residents of these villages say they are being hounded out of their homes without care.
CITYVOICE investigation shows that construction work has commenced in earnest at the communities situated in Ewekoro local government, where many farmlands have been destroyed by bulldozers and caterpillars deployed by contractors for the multi-million naira project.
All the buildings at Bolowosere, Ajanbata and Peteji have been marked for demolition and this has created panic among residents. The villagers, on whose fears are written all, are lamenting what they said it the wanton destruction of their farmlands by the company owned by billionaire businessman, Aliko Dangote, without any compensation paid to them.
Locals said there is no tangible negotiation between the company and the communities before the farmlands were invaded by the contractors, who are guarded by armed policemen. When City Voice visited the communities last week, red marks were seen on all the buildings and ancestral burial grounds at Bolowosere, signifying the buildings will soon be demolished.
Efforts to get information about the project from Dangote Group proved abortive. While contacted, the Director of Communication for the group, Mr Tony Chiejina would not confirm or deny the existence of the project. “My brother, I am driving and I am on Benin Ore road, so I cannot confirm it,” he said. “But let me direct you to Francis.”
When Mr Francis was contacted, he simply said ‘Oga, I am not in capacity to talk to you about the project. You should contact my senior, who is Mr Tony.”
Other efforts to elicit response from either men were unsuccessful at press time.
It was also difficult to get reactions from the Ogun State government. The state governor, Ibikunle Amosun was yet to appoint any aides, including those for communications. Officials of the state land bureau claimed they could not speak ‘except with clearance from the governor’s office.”
There were no local officials to speak with either, as elections into the state’s local council government are yet to be held in the state.
According to information from the company, Dangote Cement is a fully integrated cement company and has projects and operations in Nigeria and 14 other African countries. It is also the biggest quoted company in West Africa and the only Nigerian company on the Forbes Global 2000 Companies.
Dangote Cement’s current total production capacity in Nigeria from its three existing cement plants namely Obajana (10.25MMTPA), Ibese (6.0MMTPA) and Gboko (4.0MMTPA) is 20.25MMTPA. The Obajana Cement Plant (OCP) located in Kogi State is reputed to be one of the single largest cement plants in the world with a combined capacity of 10.25MMTPA.
A fourth line, which will add 3.0MMTPA to the existing capacity, will bring the total capacity of Obajana to 13.25MMTPA by 2015.
The ongoing clearance work in Ogun State is, obviously, to increase the capacity of the plan at Ibese, which abuts the embattled villagers.
Other villages that have been marked for demolition to give way for the development include Oluke, Onikoko, Alabee, Oke-isa, Sepeti and Ogadi.
The villagers, who said their communities had been without any government presence, say they are about to lose everything when cement plants are erected on their ancestral lands.
According to the villagers, they only used to local herbs due to the absence of medical facilities in his village of birth. Five years old Jonathan, the son of a village hunter who has never seen electricity all his years may grow up with no ancestral history of his family, as the African
The almost six kilometers access route from Itori, a small town, into the villages is a tough commute on slippery earthen ‘road’. The road is also manned by officers of the Nigeria Police from Ewekoro Police Division, who have checkpoints along the route. Two of them were sighted collecting N100 each from motorcyclists, who are the only providers of transportation on the route.
A farmer, Koruda Agbo, information of the purchase of the land by Dangote has gotten to them, but “no one has visited us to discuss anything. We have come to join our brothers living here before us.
“I am 30 years old and was born here. I am an indigene of this village. You may be looking at it like this, it has been here for a long time. From history, the villages here are over two hundred years old, even more than that.”
Another farmer, who simply introduced himself as Sunday, confirmed that Bolowosere village, amongst others, is not a settlement of no history that could just be wiped off. Hilariously pointing at the burial sites, he said, “now they have bought all the buried dead, along with the land and they have marked everything for demolition. Now, they will wake up again. Maybe they will pursue those that are disturbing their rest.”
Segun Adegbite, a pastor in one of the villages, said even he has not received any visit from company officials, even though his church is also marked for demolition.
“We have heard rumor that they promised to pay us money. Just like that, as if a village is a yam. Some people said they will build houses for us in other places. Some said they will just give us money, but for now no one is talking to us. We are only seeing them coming around with some of the village youths. Whoever might have sold this place to them, we don’t know. We used to vote here. There is a polling station here. But, as you can see, there is no dividend of democracy, no electricity, no water and now they want to pursue us and there is no government anywhere to help us. We have not heard anything from them.”
However, indifferent to the warning of other villagers that they should be getting ready for eviction, Veronica Ajah, a mother of two who last year lost her husband to illness, was of the view that the arrival of the company might led government into ‘remembering the village.’
“They have not come to meet with us on what their plans are,” she said. “They have come to count our farms, and check them, but we are yet to see any money and the bulldozers are here. Possibly they think we are of no value, even when we have not been sent packing. Since I got to this village, I have never seen a flash of electricity. No water; no health centre; because if there is any, my husband would have still remained alive.”
She also had another reason to doubt the sincerity of company workers, saying the day they first come to check her home, “one of them collected my phone number and started calling me over the night. So, just imagine that. Any man who is interested in another person’s wife is not to be trusted.”
Dangote should leave our land alone
The people of the town could trace history back to pre-colonial days, and how in the past politicians used to come and campaign in the village on bicycles.
The Baale, Chief Olalekan Tijani also confirmed that, “the people pay tax to government. They will come with tax papers to collect money, but we don’t see them again. Maybe it is the conscience of having not been doing anything. Tell them not to destroy the burial place of my ancestors,” he said.
Chief Tijani dismissed any claims that the villagers were informed about the project, saying that he was not aware of any monetary compensation to the communities.
“We want the government of Ogun state to intervene to avoid our being rendered homeless by Dangote,” the septuagenarian said.
However, 45-year-old Isiaka Kayode, who described himself as the village youth leaders and has been employed as a security guard by the construction firm, said he is in support of the project. Although he was yet to receive any payment, after having worked for two months, he said the people have nothing for worry about and that the presence of the cement plant would bring modernity to the area.
“Things are okay and we believe this will bring comfort to all of us,” he said. “It is what we have been expecting for a long time. We are all happy with it. We received it with all gladness. We are together; I am now security officer here, though we have not started receiving money. I am from Bolowosere, which is where I come from. They have told us that they will demolish all the buildings there.”
However, when asked on what will happen after the demolition of their houses, Mr. Kayode claimed he was not sure of what they will do for them. “Though there is an agreement. They said they will build houses for us somewhere else, but it is neither written down nor witnessed by any lawyer.”
He, however, claimed that he had heard reports that Mr Dangote is a philanthropist and that this means the villagers are not going to be disappointed.
“I pray that they will not disappoint us,” he said. “We know about it all. They promised to give us free access to electricity, hospital. Maybe, they will first provide everything before sending us out of here and if they fail to do that, we will send them out by ourselves.”