President of the Cross Rivers State chapter of the Nigerian Shippers Association, NSA, Michael Ogodo, has accused the Cross Rivers State government of frustrating his N150m Cocoa farm project earlier approved by the state.
cocoa farm
In an exclusive interview with Vanguard, Ogodo said that the immediate past government of the state urged his firm to go a step further from cocoa export to processing in the state as a way of creating more jobs in the state.
Ogodo told Vanguard that he had been involved in the export of cocoa from the state since 1996 and has been very successful.
According to him, “We met the then governor, Liyel Imoke, in 2009 and in one of those courtesy visits with my friends from London, Amajaro Trading Company, he urged us to consider processing Cocoa at the Export Processing Zone, EPZ, and we said why not.
“But we said to him, your Excellency, the total volume of cocoa being produced in Cross Rivers state as at that time our estimate was 30,000 metric tons and we said to him if we want to set up a factory that can produce 10,000 tones, we will need to have our source of cocoa.
We needed land to plant cocoa so that we can at least generate half of what we will use in the factory and then buy the rest because you cannot set up a factory expecting 20,000 raw materials whereas total cocoa supply in this area is 30,000. You cannot get it because other Cocoa exporters are not going to allow you to buy that much. Liyel Imoke agreed and said they were going to give us land.”
Ogodo said after waiting for about a year for the land from the state government, his firm had gone to two communities, Tiara and Itarakureriren, to acquire 7,241 hectares of land at a cost of N35 million and then went to the state government that gave them Certificate of Ownership, C of O.
He further disclosed that the then Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of the state, Mr. Attah, was his lawyer for the transaction and that the governor had promised to fix the road leading to the communities as well as give them electricity.
However, he noted that at the point they were supposed to move into the land, they were told that they needed to get a formal approval from the Cross Rivers State Forest Reserve Commission which they refused to give, stating its fear that the company would cut down economic trees. Representatives of the two communities and their lawyers came to Calabar to see the governor several times but he went abroad then for medical care.
Ogodo said when the governor finally came back from his trip; he also said that they could not farm on the land. “I swear to God, I lost everything and the only thing I have is the piece of paper which is the C of O. The nursery we planted have grown substantially, we have cleared substantial part of the land. We also paid this lecturer, Dr. Getty Njah, N20 million as total survey cost,” he concluded
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