Farmers Protest Deliberate Privatisation Of Cocoa Property In Cross River

Tons of of smallholder farmers in Etomi group of Etung native authorities space of Cross River State trooped to the streets on Wednesday to protest the plan by the state authorities to privatise cocoa property positioned in the neighborhood.

The protesters, together with youths, aged women and men concerned within the cocoa worth chain rejected the reported authorities plan to offer the property to personal agency to function.

Protesters carried placards with inscriptions similar to “Our cocoa property just isn’t on the market” and “We gained’t settle for privatization of our property”.

A group chief, Mr. Mbek Agbor-Tangban, cautioned the state authorities towards deviating from the settlement entered into with their grandparents, who donated the big hectares of land for the cocoa property.

Agbor-Tangban acknowledged that the federal government must have consulted group leaders earlier than saying plans to privatise the property, citing a provision of the settlement that the landlords needs to be consulted and given precedence in any privatisation or subletting.

Additionally expressing her anger on behalf of the group ladies, the ladies chief, Ntunkai Mary-Ndum demanded that authorities ought to uproot its cocoa stems and return naked land to the group, if now not within the smallholder farmers’ scheme.

The youth chief in the neighborhood, Mr. Abang Shikina-Oji known as on the state authorities to rethink its determination, stressing that the transfer would put the host group at an obstacle and sure throw many youths out of jobs, a growth he stated may lure the youths into criminality.

Of their separate response, Cross River State Commissioners for Agriculture and Info, Mr. Johnson Ebokpo and Dr. Erasmus Ekpang, appealed for calm, stating that Governor Bassey Otu would evaluate the matter and handle the issues of the folks.

They assured that the Governor’s major concern is the folks’s curiosity and wouldn’t do something to undermine it.