HOMEF Trains Farmers in Akwa Ibom Oil Community on Resistance to Land Grabbing
By Ekemini Simon
Farmers in the Akwa Ibom Oil Community of Ibeno have been trained on land rights and how to resist land grabbing.
Ibeno has been at the centre of land conflict especially at the stubb creek forest reserve coupled with reports of a Chinese Company carrying out illegal mining on Ibeno land without the consent of the community.
The two days training conducted by Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) on January 29 and 30 took place at Okoroutip in Ibeno local government area of Akwa Ibom State.
Various resource persons took the community through topics such as ” who owns the land: Dissecting the Land Use Act”, “Your Rights and You: Understanding the African Charter for Peoples and Human Rights”, “Community Advocacy”, and “Building Community Engagement “.
The Project Assistant of HOMEF, Onome Etisiro in her presentation noted that in line with the Land Use Act of 1978, the government is simply holding the land in trust of the people and not the owners of the land.
She explained that the government can only use land due to overriding public interest which the court has interpreted as the need to provide social services that will be beneficial to the entire community.
Etisiro pointed out that despite the powers of government to use land for social projects, the consent of the land owners must be duly sought and compensation paid.
While noting that Ibeno is prone to land grabbing due to its mineral resources, the project Assistant charged the community members to always demand for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) among other documentations on any project carried out in their communities as a way of checking land grabbing.
She noted that besides the Land Use Act, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Right protects communities on the right to their land hence should be explored when land grabbing incidents occur.
On his part, the Project Lead of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Stephen Oduware noted that the training stemmed from the observations that the community members have witnessed intimidation, and even disposal of their land.
He said it is disturbing that although the Land Use Act of 1978 stipulates that the government holds the land in trust for the people, the reality is that the government actually acts as land owners while the communities who are supposed to be the real owners have been left to become landless.
Oduware added ” This is evidenced in corporations coming into communities without due process such as consultation or participation. Some even operate in communities without EIA.
“This is the reason we train the communities on their rights as humans and also the rights of farmers to farmland. We are hopeful that this training will birth a collective of people who will stand up for their rights and hold corporations to account for the benefit of the wider community and the society”.
The Project Lead assured that HOMEF has human rights lawyers who are ready to stand with communities anytime communities see the need for litigation when their lands are grabbed from them.
In his response, the Youth Leader of the Community, Comrade Nsoh Nsoh noted that most extractive operations taking place in their domain have ridden on the back of land grabbing with support from the government.
He assured that with the training, community members will mobilize to resist land grabbing tendencies and explore all legitimate avenues in their resolve.