- Alleges Denial of Compensation to Communities, Non-compliance with CDA
By Amos Aar
A second-class chief in Okpokwu local government area of Benue State, and former deputy speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Chief James Okefe, on Thursday alleged that Dangote Coal Mines Ltd, a subsidiary of Dangote Group, that is operating in Okpokwu LGA of the state is complicit in recent spate of killings in the area.
Chief Okefe specifically alleged that the General Manager of the mining company, Mr Nuhu Eluja, is responsible for the heightened insecurity in the area.
The traditional ruler was reacting to claims by Mr Eluja at a stakeholders’ meeting held at Government House, Makurdi between the Federal Commissioner of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) representing Benue State, Mr Adaa Maagbe, and the state chapter of the Miners Association of Nigeria, who had spoken on issues of compensation, Community Development Agreement, and insecurity in the area, among other things.
Chief Okefe accused Mr Eluja of bringing into the host community foreigners to intimidate the people of the area. He noted that when suspected Fulani bandits attacked and killed about several people in Edumoga in Okpokwu LGA, Mr Eluja did not as much as showed any concern.
“I told him [Eluja] that all those people you are bringing, you cannot use foreigners to intimidate my people; it is not possible. When anything happens these days, they will say traditional ruler. Ask him [Eluja], when Fulani came and machete 14 people in Okpokwu, even sorry, no message from Dangote, just common sorry on phone, Eluja is here. Then he will come and say all those things about Okpokwu?” Chief Okefe stated.
According to the traditional ruler, his reaction to the claims by Mr Eluja, whom he described as his son, was to clarify issues he raised. “I want to clear the air on what my son, Mr Eluja, has said. The whole problem is caused by him [Mr Eluja]. Personally, as Ad’Okpokwu [Father of Okpokwu], I wrote a letter to him, introducing authentic ward heads of Ugbokolo, confirmed by the Bureau for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs and the Idoma Area Traditional Council. He [Eluja] could not honour the letter and is paying somebody who is not even a chief. Every month, he is paying the person, the person is not a chief”.
On corporate social projects, Chief Okefe said it took Dangote Group many years to complete a small bridge project in the immediate host community of Effeche, an allegation that directly recanted a claim by Eluja that every year, the company executes a project for the host community.
Chief Okefe said; “He [Eluja] said something about Community Development Agreement (CDA). Ask him, as Ad’Okpokwu, I have never seen that CDA. When I asked him, he said it is with the Minister in Abuja.
“Any of you can bear me witness; there is no primary school, no clinic, if you see the water, you will pity the community. The problem with him is that instead of him to do the right thing, he will go and start from top. The other day, I invited him to come to my palace, he decided to go to the first-class chief, Engr George Edeh, former Head of Service. I’m the father of the place,” Chief Okefe said.
The General Manager’s claims
Mr Eluja had earlier, while responding to a question posed to him and other miners in the state by the representative of the Tor Tiv at the meeting, Chief Moses Anagende, who demanded to know who licenses miners and who signs consent documents for them to carry out mining activities in Benue State, claimed that Dangote Coal Mines Ltd faces various challenges from host communities in Benue South despite the compensation it paid to the communities.
He lamented that the incessant halting of their mining operations has greatly affected their revenue generation.
“Well, if I may refer to the earlier message of the Honourable Commissioner, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, they are here to encourage miners and by so doing, miners will be able to increase their output and when the output is increased, it will also affect the total remittance of royalties to the federal government and by extension, if the royalties are increased, it will increase the 13% derivation going to both the states and the local governments.
“We as Dangote, we tried as much as possible to start operations by obeying all the extant laws. First, we took consent from the host communities. Well, some people were talking about who should be the rightful person to give the consent. If you look at consent paper, it is clearly stated, the village head is one of the signatories, the traditional ruler is one of the signatories because from our own experience and interaction with the mining communities and the royal fathers within the area, they told us that the royal fathers are the custodians of the land. So, we feel that by the time we get their signatures appended on this consent, we are free to go ahead.
“So, we have satisfied all laws, and the relevant payment we should give to farmers who farm on the land, we also do that after proper enumeration and evaluation by the officials of the state Ministry of Lands Survey and Solid Minerals. When they give us the bill, they give the names of the farmers, payment upon compensation is done,” Mr Eluja stated.
He further claimed that Dangote Group has been settling the host communities after reaching proper agreements with them but some members of the communities had decided to ‘unnecessarily destabilise’ the company’s operations.
“We do not stop there, there is also annual suffrage rent which we pay to land owners. In some communities, we are told that land is jointly owned; in some communities, we are told that land is owned by a group of families. So, this one is determined and every year as long as we remain using their land, we continue to pay suffrage rent.
“We did not stop there too, we used our own initiative as a company to try to get something that will keep the communities whose lands have taken, trying to give them something every month based on the level of coal that is produced. This is more or less on pro rata basis. If we have our operations throughout the month, you have your full share, if there is obstruction, we calculate the number of days that you did not allow us to work and deduct and the balance is given to you.
“We are barely two years of mining in both Okpokwu and Ogbadibo local government areas of Benue State. We started with a community called Effeche from April 2020 to about January 2021, we finished mining of coal there and we moved to another community called Abache; they share boundaries. We had a very smooth cooperation with Effeche Community but when we got to Abache, the story was different. We did not enjoy the kind of cooperation that we had with the previous community.
“As I’m talking to you, between June this year and October 6th, the total work stoppage experienced from Abache community is 32 days. So, you can imagine the colossal loss!”
Eluja pointed out that one of the reasons why people in the area have been attacking them: “You may ask, why are they disturbing us? They make some demands that can be described as unrealistic because before we started mining, we had Community Development Agreement with them and all the corporate social responsibility projects are imbedded in the CDA. We give them scholarship every year, first-year project is stated, second-year project is stated, third-year project is stated, fourth-year project is stated and the fifth-year project is stated because the CDA itself has a tenure of five years and all the projects have time lines. But some of them will come asking for this and that and if you go into details, some of them are after personal benefits for themselves.
According to Eluja, Dangote Group has taken the matter to all the local chiefs up to Och’Idoma and they tried to intervene to no avail
“If we are not having smooth operations, it will affect our total output and it will affect our remittance to the government,” he said.
Apart from the alleged disturbances by communities, other factors according to Eluja include stoppage of work on annual festivals both in Okpokwu and Ogbadibo.
“The are also threatening that night operation should stop. Why would they say we should stop night work because we have both day and night shift so that production will increase. They say working at night is disturbing the spirit of their ancestors because recently, they had a clash with a neighbouring community and I don’t know where they went to check, they said it was because of the noise disturbing the spirit of the ancestors in the night by Dangote. So, up till now we are contending with that.
“We also have problem of insecurity in that area we are working, Ugbokolo zone is a very volatile area especially for cultists! From time to time, some youths mobilise especially at nights, shooting sporadically with sophisticated riffles to scare away our workers and when they scare away our workers, they have access to our heavy machines and they drain all our diesel because diesel is very expensive now, it’s a hot cake. Every day, they carry out this threat to the extent that we had to even cry to the village heads to assist us.
“So, some soldiers were deployed to the site. Recently, a particular community, because their members are no longer having easy access to steal our diesel because of the presence of the military men, they now accused the soldiers of coming to their communities, entering their houses or compounds without due permission. We went to that place and we discovered that it was false. Some even later told us that they don’t want to see soldiers here. But we have the right to use anybody or group as security. You don’t have to dictate to us,” Eluja asserted.
Hazards and alleged fraud in compensation payment
Apart from the issue of insecurity and pollution of sources of water in the area, Chief Okefe also raised alarm that many houses close to the mining site have cracked as a result of blasting by Dangote without compensation from the company. He however corroborated Eluja on the allegation of gunshots at the Dangote Mines at nights and justified the action by his subjects.
“If you go and see the cracking of houses in Abache, you will pity them as if they don’t have anybody because he [Eluja] is dealing with people who are not duly recognised indigenes of that community. He will carry somebody called president general; how can a president general be more than a community or traditional ruler? The person he is using is Robert Ameh. Robert Ameh is just a president general, not even a kindred head or a tax collector, he is the one that will tell me, recognise this person. How will the people not shoot in the night? How will the people not shoot in the air?
“To crown it all, he [Eluja] said something about compensation. When the Ministry of Lands, Survey and Solid Minerals evaluates either economic trees or farms, are the traditional rulers not supposed to know how much they are going to pay? How many people are they going to pay? Who and who they are going to pay? Eluja will not tell anybody. Either he will go and stay in Ankpa and call people and say cheque is ready, cheque is ready, come and collect cheque.
“As I’m talking to you, I don’t know who and who they are paying money in Okpokwu. The other time, my people cried to me, they cut 30 percent of N800-and-something million; about N180-something-million. I personally called him; he said it was understanding. I said is there any written agreement where the community said they should cut about N82 million from community money? He could not answer me. They are very greedy and I want it to be on record”, Chief Okefe alleged, fuming.
Chief Okefe stated that he has written to the DSS on how Eluja is meddling with the traditional institution by his refusal to recognise duly appointed ward heads. “I have written to DSS, I have the paper. The recent paper I wrote to him, up to the point he delegated a ward head that he should go and collect another letter again after I said this is the person that is the authentic ward head, Emmanuel Diko; he is paying somebody who is not a chief, he is recognising the person…
“I want to plead with this house to plead with him [Eluja]; let him not use external security to threaten my people. If you want anything, come to us directly. He is going to soldiers, Okpokwu is a very peaceful place. We have Volunteer Guards from our place, they are not from heaven.
“Look at the rate of kidnapping in this place and on Odoba road, I could say that it is the people he brought that are doing this thing and we could not apprehend those people. They are behind it; I want to put it on record, Chief Okefe said.
Mr Eluja, however did not respond to the issues and allegations raised by the traditional after he had finished.
Also reacting, Ter Kwande, Chief (Engr) Timothy Tavershima Ahire, urged Dangote Group and other Miners in the state to always inform the local government chairmen about their operations. “If you don’t go to the chairmen who are the chief security officers of local governments and anything happens to you, don’t ask us, we will say we don’t know you, and we will be saying the truth because you are on your own”, he warned.
Chief Ahire also called on the Benue State Government to be more definite on which traditional rulers should sign consent documents for miners.
“The form says traditional rulers. But here in Benue State, we have clearly defined layers of traditional rulers. I think even though it is a federal government form, we should be able to state clearly, which class of traditional rulers so that we will know who and who should sign the consent document,” Chief Ahire stated.
Responding, State Commissioner of Finance, Mr David Olofu, who represented Governor Samuel Ortom at the meeting, said the issues presented were very critical. So, the report of the meeting will be presented to the governor when he is back from his trip and part of the report will recommend the state government to convene a summit of mining sector in Benue to address all the issues.
