From Elvis Omoregie Benin
Indigenes of Orogho community in Orhionmwon Local Government Area of Edo State, yesterday, called on Presco Plc not to lay claim on the 2,500 hectares of land allegedly allocated to them by the state government saying that they were not consulted for such transaction.
This was contained in an open letter to Presco Plc titled “Provocative encroachment of Orogho land by Presco Plc, signed by Orogho Concerned Indigenes, Elders in Council and Opinion Leaders and made available to newsmen in Benin City.
The communique stated that they they were highly disturbed by the speculation that their land has been give to Presco Plc by the state government without their consent adding that the 14,400 hectares earlier given to them have not been fully utilized therefore, the company does not deserve another of their land coupling with the fact that they were not carried along in the process of alleged contentious acquisition of the 2,500 hectares of land.
“That the ongoing speculation that Presco Plc has been allocated 2,500 hectares by the state government is a ruse, unfounded and far from the the truth.
“The land belongs to Orogho and not even the government, any person or group of persons talk less Delta State”, the statement said.
“That with regard and respect to the constituted authority, there was formal consultations with us, the state government and our Benin monarch before Approval and certificate of occupation was issued over the 14,400 hectares which you are yet to develop.
“Orogho land cannot be given out without our consent. For ages, it has been our ancestral land without dispute from successives governments even before the advent of the whitemen”
The statement further said that prior to the enactment of land use decree 1978, the people of the community have had indelible ancestral right to the farm land of which, a part of about 14,000 hectares acquired through our royal father, Oba Erediauwa.
It added that the ocassion was greeted with mutual acceptance by the people as it was aimed at developing the area therefore, the present area occupied by Presco is a an undisputable Orogho land and does not belong to Sokponba as misconstrued by Presco Plc.
The group in their statement however frowned at the wrongful naming of their farm land as Sokponba Estate instead of Orogho Estate.
It alleged that the company’s assertion that the people of the community and its environs constitue a reasonable percentage of its work force (unskilled) labour was a hoax as the Deltans make up the 80 labour, a deviative approach from the spirit of local content development policy of the federal government.
The communique further said that the protracted depletion of the indigenes from skill and unskill appointments suggested a grand scheme of alienation of the people who own the land.