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Residents of Mercy Land community, a community behind Shasha market in Oba Ile, Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo state have trooped out enmass to show up their Grievances against destructive minning activities of the Ebenezer minning & ceramic Ind.Limited, that caused series of damages to the community and gradually becoming threat to lives.
The residents in their numbers matched out to the entrance of the construction company on Monday morning with several play cards with different captions such as “Ebenezer are killing us”, “Government, come safe our lives and properties”, ” Stop Ebenezer mining and ceramic Ind.Ltd from destroying our houses” and etcetera.
As gathered by our heritage reporter correspondents, properties worth millions have been destroyed without a single compensation from either the minners or Government, considering the high cost of materials and economic state of the Nation, life is becoming more tricky for property owner’s and residents of the community amisdts daily and weekly damages accrued from the minners, that becoming unbearable and there is urgent need for lasting solution to the subject.
Some residents of the community who spoke with our heritage reporter described the activities of the minners as destructive, ungodly, unhealthy,and threat to life which must as a matter of urgency be made to permanently stop, many of them however call on the Government of Ondo state under the Leadership of His Excellency, Hon. Lucky Aiyedatiwa to come to their aide.
According to One of the Residents, Rev. Dr. John Ayo Oladapo, who spoke with our heritage reporter, said “we are here this morning to call on all important personalities and particularly the Ondo state Government to come to our aid, we are facing huge amount of challenges as a result of the blast from the Ebenezer construction company, houses have been pulled down, several of our houses now have holes, as a result of their blast on countless numbers of time, stones will fly from their company to our community, people have been wounded on many instances, the company are aware of this level of destruction, but nothing has been done to this effect.
We have written to Ministry of mines, the area commander of police and up till now, there is no any tangible result, we are calling on Ondo state Government to come to our aide to safe our lives and property, Rev Oladapo said.
Further more Mr Olorunyomi Oluwaseun, “a member of the community emphasized on the need for Government intervention, according to him, ” we are at Ebenezer mining and ceramic Ind , as a result of the damages been caused via their blasting, our lives is at danger, for instance, on the first of April 2020,a blast was made here and demolished the frontage of my house, reports was made, necessary office were addressed but to no avail, the repairs cost huge amount of money which I beared singlehandedly, not only me, but many other co-house owners, that’s why we are here, we are calling Government to come and help us, the Damages is getting to hard to bear, there is inflation everywhere,a bag if cement now cost above 10,000 and roofing sheet has increased dramatically, it’s very difficult to build a house, imagine a
all of a sudden the whole project is brought down without any compensation, we need the Government to help us, Mr Olueaseun concluded.
While speaking with our heritage reporter, the Secretary of the community, Mr Adebayo Majeek, says the community were there to show thier grievance on the damages caused on the houses by Ebenezer company, according to him, a lot ugly inventories has happened as a result of their blast, many houses has been damaged while some have collapsed as a result of the destructive blasting, we have informed them on several times but nothing has been done, sometimes ago they promised us that henceforth, thier blast will not be a massive ones to the extent of affecting property, but all these are untrue, we are however calling on the Government to safe our lives and property, we can no longer sleep with our two eyes closed, we as a people and community seriously need Government Intervention, Majeek said.
While attending to the Protestants, the management team of the Ebenezer mining and ceramic Ind Ltd. opted for another round table discussion, the management advised that, the community write the ministry of mines together with the company for and set our modalities and date for proper meeting in which measures will be made to attend to every concerns of the community.
While appreciating the management team on the manners at which the community was attended to, Rev. Oladapo on behalf of the community thanked the team, expressed satisfaction on the method at which the angry protestants were addressed and assures that, the community will act soon on the necessary steps to aide the meeting as requested by the team.
Peoplesmind
