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From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
Farmers in Elebute community in the Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State have raised the alarm over the flooding and destruction of their farms by the wastewater from the Lafarge cement company operating in the area.
The farmers who lamented that the wastewater being released from the company’s factory had caused serious damage to the several farmlands in Elebute, resulting in farmers incurring huge financial losses.
Narrating his ordeal to Sunday Sun, one of the affected farmers, Ayinla Olaniyi, said his plantain farm, measuring more than four hectares, had been totally flooded and damaged by wastewater from the firm.
Olaniyi who said he had been farming for almost 50 years in Elebute, stated that the environmental issue started eight years ago.
He further stated that the affected farmers had met with the management of the cement factory in Ewekoro to alert it over the environmental degradation on several occasions, where the company promised to make amends.
He, however, said that despite all the assurances by the company to remedy the situation, the wastewater had continued to be pumped into the farms.
Another farmer, John Bamidele, who is a retired civil servant, explained that his farm had been badly damaged by the water from the factory, saying every effort to make the factory stop releasing the “destructive” water into his farm, had proved abortive.
Bamidele, who said he invested all of his retirement benefits and other funds on the destroyed farm, added that the farmers had sought the intervention of the Federal Ministry of Environment on the matter in 2016, but the company did nothing to stop the destruction.
“Apart from the Federal Ministry of Environment, the affected farmers, through Gani Fawehinmi Human Rights Humanitarian Foundation, wrote a save-our-souls letter to the Alake and Paramount Ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo, on the matter in 2021, but the situation has remained unchanged.
“We equally informed the state government, the Commissioner of Police and Director of the State Security Service (DSS), to alert them on our plight. We, the concerned farmers, want to appeal to the concerned authorities to come our aid as our means of livelihood is being eroded,” Bamidele said.
