Farmers in some communities in Akamkpa, Biase and Odukpani local government areas of Cross River State have lamented the activities of an oil palm company, Biase Plantations Limited, run by Wilmar, in their domains.
The farmers complained that the activities of the company, who owned thousands of hectares of land of oil palm plantations in these areas, were affecting them negatively. They alleged that toxic water from the company’s estates was destroying their farmlands and crops worth hundreds of millions of naira. They also alleged that their land was forcefully grabbed by the company with no compensation. They accused chiefs of colluding with the company to grab their lands.
Mr Paul Asuquo, a farmer in, Ayukaba Village, Akamkpa, who conducted our reporter round his farm that shares a boundary with the oil palm plantation, said the company had dug a ditch to serve as a boundary and this had an adverse effect on them.
Asuquo said: “This happens to be my farm and I share a direct boundary with Wilmar. Before now we did not have this. When they came in they decided to dig round their estate. From the time they did this they tried controlling water from their estate and they have not even given us any outlet. If you look over there, you will see a big pond of water. It is becoming a river everyday as it is increasing. These were my farms, but they are all gone. The chemicals from the fertilizers they are using have killed nearly everything. Everyday this water is growing and this is our source of livelihood. My aged mother this is where she used to send us to school and now I have inherited it. This is where I am using also to keep my generation coming. So if you look at it now, we are not benefitting anything from Wilmar, but look at the damages we are facing every day. So I don’t know, if there is any way we can get assistance or compensation because we are really losing. They have grabbed the land. Now what is the economic value given to the people? I farm in cash crops like cassava, palms, vegetables and so on. Now we don’t have anything again.
“We have lost crops and the land is gone. We cannot use the land as it is now because it would take resources to pull this water out for us to have the land again. The company has not talked to us. The people staying around this area, this was their source of water, now cannot have the water anymore.
“We want compensation. But they still need to create an outlet so the water would go out of this place, because even if they give us compensation and the water keeps growing, it makes no difference.
Mrs Veronica Dickson Asuquo, an 88-year old, from the same community, also complained about the same thing.
“The water has over flown into everything that I used to plant. Now I have no other place to plant. I am a widow and you see my age, am I going to beg and eat? So I want collect compensation to help me. I don’t know how I would live so my children and grandchildren will benefit because I have no other land apart from that one. The company has never one day come to me to tell me anything. We have complained to them but they have not done anything. I am a native of Akamkpa. I am not a stranger. So they cannot take my land and leave me to die hungry,” she lamented.
Another farmer in Ibogu community of Biase local government area, Deacon Williams Ojobe, complained that their land was forcefully taken from them by the plantation without any compensation.
“I am here this after to tell the whole world the condition we are facing in this land. I have been a farmer from birth. Growing up I was not educated because of financial problems. I was farming here and at a time as I was growing up, I decided to extend from cassava and plantain to cocoa, which God helped me to put a large farm here. Around 2012 we started hearing rumour that Wilmar is coming and started protested and we did all we could, but there was no way. We could not withstand them. Finally last year 2017, they used force. They came with force and through the chiefs. They bulldozed and destroyed everything. As I am speaking to us now, we don’t have where to farm. Look at the youths now, they are doing nothing. Apart from this Okada, there is nothing for them to survive with. All of us are now roaming about the street and nothing to do. Now I am calling the whole world to come to our help. I am calling on the Federal Government and the State Government to do something. We have been crying. If I tell you the living cost now in my community you would not believe it. The old people are remaining like that and they are dying. Last week one old man of hunger. The children could not cater again and the man died. If it continues like that what would be the condition of Ibogo. Children are no longer going to school because their parents cannot pay school fees because their land has been taken. Today we are just remaining like that. So if there is anything you can do to help us by talking to the government to come to our rescue I am begging you in the name of God to help us. We have talked to Wilmar. We have done a lot of demonstration and when they come they promise a lot of things but in the end would not do anything,” he said.
Dr Maurice Olory, with the Community Forest Watch, said they received complaints of the activities of the oil palm company from the farmers in the area and had to come and confirm for themselves.
“We are here to carry out a field study. We have heard a lot of complaints from members of this community. We are of the Community Forest Watch Nigeria. We work in collaboration with Environmental Rights Action to help communities against issues as it relates to degradation and land grab in terms of mining of companies, in terms of oil palm plantations. We look at the adverse impact and benefits, if any to us. In Community Forest Watch, we say our community is our life and we owe ourselves the duty of preserving and protecting our forests and that is what we are here to do. Cross River State is housing a 75 per cent of the remaining rich biodiversity in the country and if we don’t make conscious efforts to preserve the remaining parts of this forests, then we would not be able to address the issues of climate change and the issues of global warming and all that,” Olory said.
However, the company in its reaction debunked all the allegations.
Sustainability Manager of the company, Asen Ako, who also conducted our reporter round the estate, said they have not received complaints.
Ako said: “We would like to place on record that both Calaro Estate and Ibiae estates are long existing plantations set up by the State Government in 1954 and 1963 respectively. Biase Plantations Limited (BPL) through a state government privatization process purchased Ibiae Estate (5,594.012 ha) with survey plan No. RIU/CR/113/11 and Calaro Estate (5,549.801 ha) with survey plan No. ASC/CR/EBA/11/254.”
He said there has been no additional land acquisition from chiefs or any individual to increase the size of their estates beyond what was handed by the state government.
According to him, it was not possible that that anyone to claim that they used chiefs to grab individual and family land to add to what the state handed to them.
“Biase Plantations Limited does not use or discharge any toxic chemicals into nearby waterbodies or the environment. All crop protection and crop nourishing compounds that are used in our operations are all approved for use in Nigeria by NAFDAC and are used in minimal extent after detailed analysis. There are detailed standard operating procedures that guide the use of any chemical in the operation. We conduct routine water quality analysis in line with Federal Ministry of Environment and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements and all parameters are within allowable standards. BPL has also not discharged any effluent of any form to the environment since its inception. Our first palm oil mill is still undergoing test runs and is yet to start full scale commercial operations and hence no effluent discharges.
“Thus, saying that toxic chemicals have left our plantation to destroy palms, cassava, vegetables, etc. is not true as all agrochemicals used in our estates are also used by other agro-industries and local farmers and have not been proven to have such adverse effect on surrounding farms.
“As said earlier, we are not aware of any incident as described. However, like we did in 2015, we are ready to collect water samples in the presence of community reps, with whom we can select an accredited government laboratory to analyse the water sample that will be collected, should there be any new grievances. The results shall guide on the way forward. The allegations are not true. There is no land grab or land destruction.”
Ako, who disclosed that the company has invested N45 billion in the state, said the company has a robust corporate social responsibility package for communities around its operation, geared towards education, capacity building, health, employment, and economic development.
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