Indigenous people in six communities of Ogun state say they are languishing over an electricity project by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, (TCN) that has pushed them into poverty without compensation.
The indigenous people at Otooto, Asipa, Oke Ata, Tonowo, Shoyoye, and Shogbamu communities in Owode Local Government Area of Ogun state, say they lost their homes and farmlands to the Transmission Company, who acquired their lands for a power transmission project.
According to them, 10 years after they were forced to give up their homes and lands to the Transmission Company, they are yet to be compensated. This is even as they pointed out some died as a result of hardship after losing their houses and farmlands that they rely on as a means of livelihood.
MAWA-Foundation learned from the locals that after protests by the indigenous people for no compensation, the Transmission Company paid out some tokens to those who own lands leaving out those who have houses and do not own lands.
Worse still, the indigenous people disclosed that over 30 houses were marked for demolition and many were forcefully evicted from their homes to pave the way for Transmission Company to carry out a transmission project that started in 2014.
“It was in May 2014, the Transmission Company of Nigeria stormed our community, and since that day, we have been pushed into poverty and suffering and have lost our lands and homes” a local told MAWA.
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“The company in 2020 gave out some peanuts to some indigenous persons who own lands as a form of compensation, leaving out those who own properties,” another local said.
The indigenous people who painted a gory picture of the poverty and frustration the Transmission Project has put them, disclosed that some died because they had nothing to fall back on after losing their lands and homes.
“The traditional chief ‘Baale of Shogbamu’ died as a result of poverty that followed the economic predicament caused by this Transmission Project,” the indigenous people said.