Delta Community Tackles Govt Over Land Takeover

The people of Ajaji community in Illah, Oshimili North Local Government of Delta State, have alleged that officials of the state government ordered soldiers to shoot any indigenes found on a piece of land taken from the community.
The community decried the forceful acquisition of its farmland by the state government and its subsequent leasing to Northsworthy Investment Limited.
A statement by the head of the community, Diokpa Chukwurah, last Wednesday in Asaba, said: “This glaring undeserved provocation is made worse by the declaration of the company officials that the soldiers have been ordered by the authorities (government) to shoot at sight any unauthorised person at the project site.
“Despite persistent peaceful protest by the community, the company, backed by armed soldiers, bulldozed thousands of hectares of our land for an oil palm production project.
“We are shocked that while Nigerians have been ordered to stay at home, in an effort to check the COVID-19 pandemic, Northsworthy Investment Limited’s bulldozers have been wreaking havoc on the law-abiding community.
“On a daily basis, farmlands and cash crops worth hundreds of millions of naira are being destroyed by the company’s bulldozers.”
The people called on Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and other well-meaning Nigerians to intervene in the matter and stop the company from invading their community land.
The Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr Olise Ifeajika, who denied the allegations, stressed that no government would order soldiers to shoot its citizens.
He said: “If somebody in the company made such a statement, he is on his own. Thank God that it did not come from officials of the state government. Nobody asked them to shoot any citizens.”