By Mohammed Adekola
The Ekuti, Olumoye, Oniwonlu, and Abejoye Royal families of Akodo Kingdom in Ibeju Lekki area have staged a peaceful demonstration at the site of a dredging in the creek beside the Lekki Free Trade Zone.
They sang various songs and held placards such as, “Stop Dredging Our Land,” “Be Conscious of Ocean Surge and Lagoon Flood,” Farming and Fishing, Our Major Occupation,” Think of Our Land. Think of Our Generation, Supermarine Services Ltd,” “Our Farmland, Our Pride. Stop Reducing Our Land,” among others.
The families said that dredging of the creek to provide solid land within the Lekki Free Trade Zone was an abuse of the human and environmental rights and as they could no longer farm nor fish.
They said the sea was just about a kilometer from the creek being dredged and the entire Akodo Kingdom stood the risk of flooding beside depriving the people of their source of living.
A leader of the demonstrators from the Amure family of Makio Village, Akodo, Ashimiu Agbaje said the action of the company, Supermarine Services Ltd was without any notice to the land owners and without any documents from the Lagos state government authorizing the dredging.
“This is Makio Village land. Just of recent we saw some bulldozers on our land. So, we tried to stop them. Later on they came back and said they were going to arrest us. At the end of the day, they did not arrest us but they now said we should go to Free Zone, Lekki Worldwide. We had several meetings with them but till today no compensation given to us,” said Agbaje.
The Head of the Amure Family, Sulaimon Adewale appealed to the government for help over the matter to prevent future crisis.
One of the protesting women, Funmilayo Adedeji from the Ekuti family, said the land was their ancestral home handed over from generations and the action of the company was unfair and unjust to them and the environment.
“See the way they spoil our land. We can’t even plant anything there. This is the land our parents used to train us. But now nobody can plant anything or fish there. We want our land back. We are begging our governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu to fight for us. Even to eat is now a problem. Do they want us to steal?” said Funmilayo.
A youth leader, Sulaimon Balogun called on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to intervene in the matter. “This is our only resource in the community. This is the o Le land we have. This land also we use it for farming and fishing. Now we don’t have any access to our land again because they usually chase us away from the land.
“You can see from here to the sea is about 1,200 meters. Anything can happen to the community. We all here of the flood in Borno State. We don’t want the same thing to happen in our community, and that’s why we are calling on the governor to assist us. We want the dredging to stop before this place becomes flooded. Even Dangote Refinery is not safe if the place is flooded. It has already happened in Lekuro and Apakin villages where my grandma’s place was flooded and nothing is there now. We don’t have any power to fight anybody.
