By Chinyere Anyanwu
The management of Renecon Limited, a dredging and marine engineering firm, has debunked allegations that its activities caused the Epe Tilapia mass mortality.
The company said the accusation remains unfounded and could be likened to fishing in a dead sea.
The firm made the rebuttal in response to a trending video on social media made by the tilapia fish farmers of their huge losses in Ebute Afuye Cluster of Epe.
They categorically blamed the death of the fishes on Renecon’s activities, even as the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) visited the site of Renecon located at Epe on Sunday, March 17, 2024.
Renecon, in a statement said: “We would like to put on record that LASEPA did not give the management of Renecon any prior notice of their planned visit or gave the company’s representatives an opportunity to witness the collection of the samples they collected at several locations that they said they needed to conduct an investigation of the fish farmers’ unfounded and unsupported allegations.
“Though Princess Surah Olayemi Animashaun, the Chairman of Epe Local Government, has absolved Renecon from the alleged maritime infractions through the media, pointing to the massive presence of water hyacinth which took over the entire fish farming area as cause of the fishes’ mortality. Renecon, however, wondered at the relentless orchestration of the development by unknown persons who are determined to bring down and rubbish the integrity of the company.”
Managing Director of Renecon Limited, Anthony Bademosi, disclosed that this was about the second petition by unknown persons to LASEPA against his company, noting that the first petition collapsed after due diligent investigations and wondered how his company’s activities, which is far away from the location of the fish farm, could have impacted the unfortunate circumstances.
“We believe that some powerful interests, using the instruments of state agencies, want to get rid of us in Epe. Renecon Limited operates under extant laws both within the federal and state government environmental rubrics. We have conducted our activities well and are in good terms with our local stakeholders, so for some faceless and alleged fish farmers to want to frame us as the oxygenators of the unfortunate mortality of caged tilapia fishes in Epe is not only pedestrian but a failed clever diversionary tactics to bring us down.”
According to the Renecon boss, traditional fish farmers and informed stakeholders were of the opinion that water hyacinth, which is a seasonal environmental menace impacting water transportation and lives of marine resources and fisheries in the state, and in particular Epe area, caused the death of the caged tilapia fishes as the vegetation covered and heated up the lagoon surface and drastically reduced the oxygen levels under water needed for fishes and other marine resources to survive.
“We have done our best to cooperate with LASEPA in their investigations in the past, and are ready to cooperate with them now and in the future. However, a situation where our representatives are not allowed to witness the collection of samples is unacceptable to us.
“Furthermore, we have informed our lawyers to help us track down the persons behind the unsavoury petition with hope to call them out for targeting to disrupt our operations and also set us up against the community which has been supportive of our presence here,” a distraught Renecon boss stated.
To ensure that its activities are citizens friendly, Bademosi further informed that Renecon maintains and repairs all the roads within its operational environment, employs sweepers in collaboration with Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) to ensure clean environment, constructed speed bumps to control speed by truckers and other road users around the vicinity, employs traffic controllers, and also provides clean water through a borehole for the community.
“Conclusively, we made it a point of duty to comply with environmental laws because we are a responsible company, and our integrity is top notch, so those who want to bring us down will fail and fail again,” Mr. Bademosi submitted.