The fourteen Host communities surrounding the Dangote Refinery have accused the Dangote Group/Refinery of conniving with the Lagos State government to use the Nigerian Police and Army in harassing and depriving their Villagers of their Ancestral Lands.
In a Press Released signed by Professor Maurice Fangon, Secretary-General, Center for Defense of Human Rights and Democracy in Africa and Ayo Ademiluyi, Convener, Movement of Lawyers for Total Liberation stated that the Communities’ livelihood and way of life depend on water for fishing and Land for farming. ‘This peaceful and hardworking people cannot survive without Land and Water.’
According to the statement, the peaceful dwellers started living in a perpetual fear, harassment and intimidation sometime between 2006 when Lagos State Government established Lekki Free Trade Zone at TIYE and IMOBIDO Villages which were acquired by the State Government.
It further affirmed that “a monumental fraud was perpetuated by the Lagos State Government under Senator Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration when the Certificate of Occupancy 85/85/2006X was fraudulently issued to the private Liability Company called Lekki Free Trade Zone Limited without a notice of acquisition served to the Idasho communities and payment of compensation.
The Communities are claiming that the “purported acquisition is not for overriding public purposes under Section 28(1)&(2)Land Use Act,1978 in view of the fact that incorporation documents of Company overwhelming showed that a China company, Ccecc-Beyond International Investments and Development Company Limited, Lekki Worldwide investments Limited are the two Companies behind Lekki Free Trade Zone Limited.”
In the Statement, the Communities stated that the two directors of the Lekki Worldwide Investments Limited, Mr. Olusegun Abayomi Jawando and Mr. Oyewole Oyeniyi Oworu, are cronies of former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In other words, the Communities are asserting that the acquisition is not for Lagos State Government but tailored towards enriching some individuals.
“Presently, Lekki Free Trade Zone Limited and Lekki Worldwide Investments Limited are perpetuating fraud through issuance of sublease agreements to private Companies and Commercializing Idasho Communities Land.
Lekki Free Trade Zone Limited and it’s subsidiary Lekki Worldwide Investments Company Limited and Dangote Refinery Nigeria Limited and official of Directorate of Land Bureau are using instrumentality of Nigeria Police and Army Authorities respectively to violate Fundamental Human Right of Idasho Communities through invasion of their Villages destruction of their farmlands, fish ponds, use of tear gas and canister, assault and degradation of Human dignity of Idasho Communities.”
The Idasho Communities representative of 14 Villages listed above held various meeting with the committee of the invaders with Lawyers in both side without any concrete result as they claimed that the Government has acquired the Communities Land.
The statement further revealed “the following are member of the committee set up by the Lekki Worldwide Investments Limited and comprising Mr. Tajudeen Disu the MD, Oba of Epe kingdom’s Oba Animashaun, Oba of Lekki, Oba of Use, Dr. Tola Kasali, politician etc. use caterpillar to up root people Lands. The Idasho Communities Lawyer requested the committee to produce the official gazette with which the people’s Land was acquired but they failed to produce one.”
The communities reported that “on 25/9/2011 five of Idasho Communities were arrested and detained at Zone 2 for eleven days plus another (3)day in prison custody on bail by Court, On 12/04/2013 (50)fifty Mobil policemen in five lorries invaded once more Idasho farmland and (7) were arrested were taken and detained at the Task Force Alausa for (4)four days before they were taken to State Command at Ikeja for another (3)days and charged later and granted bail on 18/04/2913.Arrest and illegal detention are used to oppress and intimidate the poor Villagers. In 2010, four Villagers at Ajegunle were arrested. The victims are: Fowosere, Agoro, 85year-old Idowu Mojeed, Adebola Mojeed, Azeez Agoro.”
… HOST COMMUNITIES THREATEN REPRISAL AGAINST LATEST ASSAULT ON THEIR MEMBERS
Residents of the Dangote Refinery Host Communities have threatened to avenge the latest assault on its communities by men of the Nigerian Police and the Army, who they claim were acting on the orders of the Dangote Group/Refinery in collaboration with the Lagos State government.
In a Press Statement, issued on the 17th of August, 2018 and titled WE CONDEMN THE LATEST ILLEGAL INVASION AND ILLEGAL EVICTION IN IDASHO AND OJU-OLOKUN COMMUNITIES, the Communities condemned the illegal invasion of IDASHO Community, Ibeju Lekki Local Government of Lagos State by officers attached to the Lagos State Special Task Force under the control of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode .
They claimed the Residents of the community were roundly beaten and harassed with over 56 of their people arrested. According to the Press Statement signed by PROFESSOR MAURICE FANGON, Secretary-General, Centre for Defense of Human Rights and Democracy in Africa and AYO ADEMILUYI, Convener, Movement of Lawyers for Total Liberation, Houses and shops were demolished. “The car belonging to Samuel Babatunde, a retired police officer, popularly called “Baba Olopa” and a community leader was damaged beyond repair.
Baba Olopa and other 60 community residents were subsequently arraigned under the trumped-up charge of damaging “public property”, which is the caterpillars brought to destroy their homes, when in reality it is a property of Dangote Refinery PLC as part of the Lekki Free Trade Zone that has illegally acquired hectares of IDASHO Community ‘s lands in collusion with Lagos State Government under the guise of “public private partnership”.
The Communities expressed their astonishment at the sacking of another community. “We are also aghast about the unlawful invasion of OJU-OLOKUN Community yesterday, 17th August, 2018 by police officers attached to the grandiose Ilubirin “Ocean line” Estate, which is sitting on the bones of evictees who are the natural owners, wherein residents who took refuge in the community after the demolition of the old Ilubirin Community demolished by the outgone Babatunde Fashola-led regime were brutally evicted. As we write, three persons including a woman with a suckling child and a ten-year-old boy are in critical condition.
We hereby give notice to Lagos State Government and their acolytes in the Nigerian Police Force that this latest onslaught will not be taken lying low after EVICTION of over 20 informal COMMUNITIES by the Akinwumi Ambode -led Lagos State Government in the past three and half years. We will mobilize the widest mass movement against these latest attacks.”
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