‘Cross River Assembly reads riot act to multinationals’ 10 October 2019

Cross River State House of Assembly has ordered Wilmar PZ and other multinational companies operating in the state to obey the laws of the state or face the music. The order became necessary following complaints from civil society groups, including Environmental Rights Action (ERA), Community Forest Watch (CFW), host communities of Wilmar PZ plantation in Biase and Akamkpa councils protesting against exploitation, land grabbing among others by Wilmar and other firms. Backed by ERA and CFW, the communities particularly accused Wilmar of not respecting any existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) it entered into with the communities.

… Arguing that there was a committee set up by the state government and Wilmer to sit with them in drafting the MOU to delineate responsibilities among stakeholders, the host communities said “existing MOUs show that they were not inclusive and community participation was sidelined.”According to several testimonies, some community leaders were invited to the MOU drafting exercise, but were not allowed to be part of the process, thereby disenfranchising them.

… But Wilmar, which owns over 25,000 hectares of palm estate in the state through a privatisation exercise, has denied any land grabbing or exploitation of the people. Its Controller of Sustainability for Africa, Isaac Mensah, said “it is completely untrue that we encroached on any land. We do not have waste and our gutter does not empty into any land.” He told the committee, “In our CSR, we have our community development initiatives which we have done much in education, water and out-growers’ programme. The company has had a good working relationship with its staff.”