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Ughelli- Hundreds of farmers under the aegis of Taungya Farmers Association of Oghara, Ethiope West Council Area of Delta State, weekend, staged a peaceful protest at their farmland inside the Sakpoba Forest Reserve against alleged wanton destruction of their farm produce, farm settlements and illegal bulldozing of their land.
The Sakponba Forest Reserve acquired by the Colonial administration in 1926 is currently located in Delta/Edo states boundary following successive regime change in the country and the boundary has not been determined by the National Boundary Commission till date. But by mutual agreements reached by both states it has been agreed that farmers from each state maintain their original portions of farmland without any encroachment and that has been the situation till date until late 2019.
Spokespersons for the protesters, an 80-years old Madam Rebeca Orighomisan and Mr. Jephthath Efefairoro who spoke to newsmen maintain that in 2019 one member of the Abe settlement in the Reserve housing over fifty-two (52) other farm settlements brought in bulldozers and other heavy duty bush clearing equipment to destroyed their farm produce, settlement and laying claim to ownership of the whole land.
According to them, “when we confronted him he deployed Police officers of Zone 5, Benin City, Edo state to intimidate, harass and arrest us including a Delta State Area Environmental Conservation Officer for Ethiope West until the state government intervened after which they decided to seek redress in the law court.”
“The matter is currently in Court in Suit No: HCH/43/2019 but the illegality is continuing unabated in spite of the court case and this is why we stage this protest to call the attention of the government and the world to intervene before the matter gets out of hand”, they emphasized.
Three youths who gave their names as Aje Johnson, Adudu Efeturi and a dozer driver who were working on the site during the peaceful protest were arrested and taken to the Oghara Police station to join others that have earlier been arrested for trespass and destruction. Those arrested on site actually came to harass the protesters. They disclosed to Journalists that they were employees of a company that assigned them to do the clearing jobs, they are currently assisting the police in their investigation
Read Original Report Here By Independent
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