By Frank Oshanugor
The people of Isho Quarters at Ubulu-Uku, Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State have threatened to sue Delta State Government, Attorney General of the State and Norsworthy Farms & Agro-Allied Industries Limited to a court of law over unlawful alienation of communal land within the Akehie River Forest Reserve.
In a Pre-Action Notice prepared by their legal counsel H. T. Ogidi (a copy of which was made available to ATLANTICNEWSONLINE), the claimants led by “Diokpa” Samuel Ugbechie, Christian Ugbechie, Geofrey Ufuegbune, Samuel Maduaka and Christopher Abunwa on behalf of the community, have indicated interest to approach the High Court of Justice to challenge what they describe as ‘illegal and unconstitutional allocation” of their land for a commercial palm plantation project.
Giving a background to the dispute, the community contends that parts of their ancestral land at Abugba, Aniuje and Anioma were contributed to the former Midwestern Regional Government in 1966 for the establishment of the forest reserve. However, by a letter dated March 28, 2011, the Delta State Government, through the Director of Environmental Conversation, formally released five parcels of land measuring 60 hectares each back to Isho Quarters, thereby confirming their beneficial ownership.
Surprisingly to the Isho community, despite the afore-mentioned step earlier taken by the state government in releasing parcels of land to them, the same Delta State Government allegedly entered into an arrangement recently with Norsworthy Farms to convert the land into a palm plantation, without the knowledge, consultation or consent of the rightful owners.
The proposed suit therefore seeks “judicial declarations that the project does not qualify ‘as a public purpose’ under the Land Use Act and amounts to an unconstitutional deprivation of property without compensation.” Besides the declarations, the claimants through the suit would ask for an injunction to restrain the Defendants from entering, clearing or cultivating the disputed land.
According to the Pre-Action Notice, the proposed suit relies on Section 43(3) of the Forestry Law of Delta State, Sections 28 -29 of the Land Use Act, and Section 44(1) of the 1999 Constitution, all of which according to the Claimants, safeguard community ownership and prohibit compulsory acquisition without compensation.
Within the legal parlance, some practitioners familiar with the issue at stake strongly believe that the suit once filed could test the limits of state powers over communal forest reserves and the rights of indigenous communities in Delta State.
As at press time, effort to get across to the management of Norsworthy Farms for its own side of the story was fruitless as its registered office at No.1 Norsworthy Close, Off Ugbolu Akwukwu Road, Oshimili North, Delta State does not provide any telephone number through which anyone could be reached. However, some anonymous sources in the area told ATLANTICNEWSONLINE that they suspected that a former governor of Delta State was behind the entire attempt to illegally acquire the Isho community land, using Norsworthy as a front.
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