Ex-lawmaker accuses Chinese firm of land grabbing

Sani Zorro, a former member of the House of Representatives, has urged Governor Umar Namadi of Jigawa State to investigate a Chinese firm’s alleged land grabbing.

Mr Zorro, who represented the Gumel/Maigatari/Sule Tankarkar/Gagarawa federal constituency of the state, alleged that the land allocated by the state government to the Chinese company for a sugar plantation, but the company plans to use it for another purpose.

He made the appeal at a citizens’ engagement programme organised by the state government on Sunday at the Gagarawa Local Government Area.

Governor Namadi initiated the programme as a feedback mechanism for him and his officials to meet local communities and discuss their development challenges.

Mr Zorro said the sugar plantation project was conceived by a former governor, Sule Lamido, and implemented by the immediate past governor, Muhammad Badaru. Mr Lamido was governor of the state between 2007 and 2015, while Mr Badaru served between 2015 and 2023.

At the event, Mr Zorro said the state government allocated the land for the company to set up a sugarcane plantation and later a sugar factory.

“We are pleading with you (Governor Namadi) not to approve a change of purpose for the Lee Group of Companies. We have the agreement. The company agreed to complete its work in two years. The land was donated for a sugarcane plantation, but years later, they are now planting what the locals were planting for their subsistence farming.

“The company is also allocating land to some top government officials, including those in your administration, for farming, while the locals whom the previous administrations cheated were watching helplessly. The locals need justice from you.

“We want the governor to institute a commission of inquiry to investigate the matter properly”, the former lawmaker said.

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His comments were welcomed with resounding voice approval by the locals at the event.

PREMIUM TIMES made efforts to speak with the Lee Group of Companies on Mr Zorro’s claims, but the officials did not respond to calls and text messages on Sunday and Monday morning.

This newspaper reported how farmers in the area demonstrated against the activities of the company.

Mr Zorro and the locals had protested that if the government grabbed land belonging to 22 villages and 27 Fulani hamlets, an act they said would threaten the livelihood of about 150,000 persons in the state.

They said the project focused on sugarcane plantation, while residents grow a variety of food crops.

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Background of the crisis

The state government had in 2014 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Lee Group of Companies to set up a sugarcane plantation with a view to setting up a sugar factory.

The state government allocated over 12,000 hectares of land for the plantation spread across four local government areas – Gagarawa, Taura, Suletankarkar and Garki.

The plantation’s pilot stage started at the Garin Ciroma community in Gagarawa LGA, also the main project host.