Factsreportersng
Elders of Illushi community, Esan South East Local Government Area of Edo State, have asked the Management of Skaff International Agro Farms Limited to vacate their land for the interest of peace, alleging that it was illegally acquired.
Spokesperson for the community, Mr. Francis Okolo Abamu made the allegation while speaking to Journalists recently in the community.
He alleged that the management of the organization connived with the executive chairman of the local government and some few individuals in the community to acquire the parcels of land without their knowledge and as result, they have no place to carry out their farming activities.
He also alleged that 65 percent of their lands have been leased out to the company for 99 years by some fraudsters in the community and these lands in question, are the only uplands in the community. The elders are not aware, they did it on their own illegally.
"In the ancient times, the agriculturalist who came to this land, they came here, called the elders before they commenced their work.
"Nowhere in this country where you will go and take land without the community's elders knowledge, no agreement, no survey, no lawyer and whatsoever and they now did it on their own even in the bush.
"This has been a pain and we are all crying. With what you are seeing, erosion has taken over the land we have. The only hope we have if the erosion continues, where we will relocate to is sold or lease to this very Lebanese man and now, the pain is now very deep in us.
"There is an urgent need for the state government to wade in and salvage the situation before it snowballs into a major crisis that could lead to the loss of lives and property, the youths might be tempted to result to self-help just to get their lands back.
Reacting to the allegation, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Skaff International Agro Farms Limited Engr. Samir Anthony Skaff, denied acquiring the land illegally saying that he did everything he needed to do to get the land in the community.
"When I intended to go into agriculture for Rice farming and Rubber plantation. At the early stage, first I wrote to the Agricultural Development Authority (ADP) to seek for their approval and advise who in return write me back and welcome the idea.
"After my findings I met with the community, their Highness and over 200 youths from the community and 14 elderly chiefs who then gave their consent and approved with a lot of incentives such as Borehole, Hospital, Schools, Scholarship etc before I finally met with the government for approval"
Also in a swift reaction, the local government chairman, Peter Aguele said their allegations of him conniving with the management of Skaff International Agro Farms Limited to take over their lands was baseless, stressing that the chairman of a council does not have the right to cede land to anybody neither has he also teamed up with the state government to do so.
0 Comments