OKOMU VS OKOMU OIL: WHO OWNS THE LAND

TENENT IN OUR LAND

A report on land grabbing, subjugation and modern day apartheid Policy on Okomu Community in Edo State by Okomu Oil Palm PLC.

Written by Blessed Jatt

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Across Africa, with particular reference to Nigeria, there is a growing expansion of large scale palm plantatios, this is due to the fact that palm oil is used in wide range of products including lubricant, medicine, biofuel, cosmetic, soap to mentione but a few. Large scale oil palm plantation has presented a dire phenomenon call land grabbing. A situation were communities are dispossessed of their ancestral lands. These lands are either appropriated by collusion with government officials, or undervalued and exchanged below prevailing market price.

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HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF OKOMU COMMUNITY

In 1910, Okomu community and environs became a forest reserve and it was gazetted in 1912. According to the Forest Ordinance Act of 1948 the following specifications were laid out

1. That the people has right to live

2. That the people has right to reside in the place as well as

3. To fish and farm in the area

However, there were certain villages were it specifically mentioned the number of houses to be built. That analysis did not take into consideration population growth over time.

In 1976, Okomu Palm Plantation which started as a Federal Government Parastatalwas privatized. The Present Okomu Oil Palm Plantation started full operation in 1990. At present Okomu Oil Palm PLC activities cut across 4 local government Areas ofvEdo State Nigeria and occupies about 37,000 hecters of land. With 4 communities displaced and over 20 others imprisoned.

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The community had long existed before the plantation was established on their land. However, between 1990 and 2008, the company successfully evicted four communities namely: Oweke village, Lemo Village, Ijawgbene Village and Agbede community. The people protested leading to the setting up of an adhoc committee by the state government. The year the committee submitted it report, the then administration of lucky Igbinedionapproved an additional 8000hectares to the company which then extended further down to Makilolo village. In the earlier Adhoc committee report, it was stated that the villages around the plantations were illegal occupantsand mere tenants in Okomu Oil Palm property therefore the company can evict them without any liability. That didn’t go down well with the communities but with the heavy presence of solders with machine guns there was little the people could do

In 2010, an eviction letter was sent to Makilolovillage based on the committee report. The communities mobilized themselves, sent a letter to the governor, the state police and the SSS amongst others but nothing was done instead they were told to go and plead with the company to give them land.later the Company came out with an MOU that they will give the community 50 Acres of land to stay because that was the only land remaining.

Photo 1: A cross section of Agbede Community when Forest Watch visited them. This community has a population of over a hundred persons. They are currently being imprisoned, oppressed, marginalized and intimidated because they do not have access to the press. And there children cannot have access to education because there is no school in the locality

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On 26^th of September, Okomu Oil Palm Plc came with Caterpillars and Soldiers to evict the people and level their houses but they meant stiff resistance from the communities. The MD of OkomuOil Pam latter wrote that he has given the community the said remaining 100n acres and came out with an MOU which the community refused to sign. The Managing Director prepared an MOU and invited few persons to his office to sign. The liaison officer of Okomu Oil Palm RobinsonRokpa who is from another community even signed on behalf of Makilolo community, that they are giving out the land to the community on tenancy.

Photo 2,3 and 4: this foot bridge was destroyed my the Managing Director of Okomu Oil Palm PlC to deny the people access. The Kola nut tree from where this photo was taking was formally Agbede, after their forceful eviction the people cross to the other side of the stream and the bridge was destroyed by the company. The photographer could not take a direct shot because of the presence of heavily armed military men which forbade photo shot from being taking. Chief Augustine Yankee an indigene of the community is currently in court on the issue of the bridge

TIME FRAME OF OCCURANCES

The iron fist policy of Okomu has been on since 2006 with pocket of resistance which started in 2010. The aforementioned MOU was signed on 1^st April 2011. During that period the Company locked the only gate that provides access to the communities both in and out. In 2010 during the INEC voters’ registration, the communities were disenfranchised because the people could not register, it was just a week to the end of the exercise that INEC official were taken through Gbelebu and down through other communities to Okomu Community, the result is that presently the community has a few registered voters. Okomu is a clan of different communities but its registered voters are just 1025. And since then INEC has not deemed it fit to go down to these communities and register the people. The time frame of occurrences is between 1990 till date

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WHO ARE THE TENENT: THE COMMUNITY OR THE COMPANY

In the government adhoc report of 2000 it was stated that the communities are the tenants in their own lands while Okomu Oil Palm is the landlord. The adhoc committee report was presided over by the then local Government Chairman and some other person. Now the tenant has become the landlord and the landlord had become the tenant. That is because government has issued the company a certificate of occupancy and that is what they parades.

PAST AND CURRENT HAPPENINGS

The situation is worst. There is a marshal curfew imposed on Okomu community. 6 pm in the evening to 6 am the next day you can’t go in with your vehicle neither can you come out with your vehicle. From the Northern Axis you have Madagbayo, Gbelenu, Izide, Sakparogbo and so many other communities, at the other side you have Oweke, Agbede, A.T & P, Makilolo, Okorodudu and so many other communities down to Okomu community. All these various communities as now slaves in their own community and there are no hospitals or schools. The only place people attend school is Udo community where only parents who can afford to rent houses at Udo do send their children to school. When anyone is sick you cannot use the company hospital because that apartheid system is there, communities can also not attend the plantation primary school. In Okomu for instance, the people donate money within themselves on monthly bases to recruit teachers to be teaching their children.

When the gate was locked especially at Agbede, Something Hazardous happened, a woman was in labour, and was been rushed to a hospital at Udo on getting to the gate it was locked. They pleaded but they were told that the law is that no one should come in or go out. On taking her back to the village, she delivered on the way, the baby dies but the woman luckily survived.

Another case was at Gbelebu, where a timber hit one of the logger, it was very hazardous, they tried rushing him to the hospital but on getting to the gate it was locked, before they could take him through other communities with rougher road, he died in the vehicle. These are easily verifiable impact.

If you are producing red oil in any of these communities, you are not permitted to come out though the gate with your oil, once the vehicle is searched and red oil is found it is confiscated. Anyone found with a little as a seed a palm fruit is arrested. The DPO of Iguobazuwa can confirm these arrest

Photo 4: The stream from where the community fish, drink and wash

Women can no longer fish on the stream and their major occupation is fishing and farming. Only recently the fishing traps of 35 women were seized, the MD ordered the security to go and harvest all the fishing traps and bring them to the company. The women leader of the community was invited to the company and was told that the only way the fishing traps can be released to her is if she signed that nobody will ever fish on the stream again. And the woman refused to sign because she does not know the content of the letter since she cannot read and right. The fishing traps are still there in the company till now.

The situation of children in those communities is pathetic. Every day at the five entrances into the plantation you will see soldiers with their machine guns pointed at the communities. These are what the children see every day. At Gbelebu town the soldiers are there, there are also at Makilolo, Oweke, Agbede. Once you get to about 50 metres from the soldiers. Everyone will alight from the vehicle raised up their hands and walk pass the military blockade. While only the driver will drive through after thorough search. Only of recent they stop making people to raise their hands. Any visitor coming into the communities must be thoroughly interrogated before they are allowed into the community. Children growing up and seeing machine guns every day how can one prevent them from growing into militants

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BENEFIT TO THE COMMUNITY (CSR)

At Okomu town, there is a town hall, 3 boreholes and a public toilet under construction. At Agbede community there is a borehole, not working; the people still fetch water from the pond.

Contrary to the claims by the Managing Director of Okomu Oil Palm PLC that the company spends 250 million naira annually on CSR.when you take a trip to those communities, you won’t find any project worth five million Naira.

The only health center at Okomucommunity is without drugs. There is only one nurse who serves as both matron and doctor. The primary school in the community has only one teacher who doubles as the headmaster and everything. Children do travel to Udo to write exam

Anyone who tries to speak out is branded a militant and is jailed with various allegation levied against them ranging from murder to planting of bombs.

DEMANDS

§ That Okomu Oil palm PLC should show respect for environmental and human right of the people in the affected three local governments areas and over 21 communities

§ That the company put in place and begin the implementation of an holistic development plan for the exploited community especially those who have been displaced and evicted from their ancestral homes

§ That Okomu Oil palm PLC should rebuild the houses that were demolished, as well as respect relevant international laws including the tenets of the Round Table on Sustainable Oil Palm (RSPO)