Fire Razes Cocoa Plantation

Some persons have uprooted and set ablaze the multi-Belform cocoa /palm oil plantation at Agboefiugo Umuaram Ikem, in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State.

The farm consultant, Odu Okim Mentol,who made this known while conducting newsmen round the four-hectare palm Oil plantation that was particularly destroyed narrated that the over 2000 palm stands were raised as nursery from Ikom in Cross River State and planted early this year.

He stated that he and other farm managers were surprised when they came to the farm and met the palms uprooted and burnt bypeople he suspected came from neighbouring  community.

Describing it as economic sabotage especially at this period that government is encouraging investment in agriculture, Okim stated that the incident had set back the investors’ morale and would obviously affect the number of employed farm attendants.

He charged both the Isi-Uzo Local Government, Enugu state government and the federal ministry of agriculture to commence full scale investigation into the incident with a view to bringing the culprits to book.

The traditional ruler of Ikem community, HRH Igwe Francis O. Okwor alleged that people from a sister community had wrecked the havoc, adding that the land is not in dispute and wondered why such act was meted on his community.

He said: “I am worried because millions of naira has gone down the drain. Even before the discovery of crude oil, Palm oil sustained the economy of Eastern Nigeria that it was even exported. I have already made report to the police. I complained that what the people have done is bad. I don’t want my community to shed any blood again and that was why I reported the matter to the government through the police. I have already told my people not to fight but to wait for government intervention”, the royal father further stressed.