Women of Alode Community in the Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State, went on a peaceful protest on Monday, February 10, 2025, to express their dismay over the destruction of their farms.
They are demanding that the state government should compensation for their losses on the lands.
The women who comprised widows, elderly, mothers and single ladies, chanted songs of sorrow, cried and rolled on the ground during the protest.
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According to them, they marched to the palace of the Chief of Nchia. Unable to access the palace, they moved to the local government council to seek help.
They wept that nothing was left in their cassava farm lands at Oke Oken Eju Oka Nkpaala, Oka Agbogbor Echi, Oka Adaa-Oka, Oka Abala Nikken, Oka Nmie Ebajor and Oka Ejie Alejor.
Their appeal to the governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, was for him to come to their aide, as they lamented that most of them were bread winners following the demise of some of their husbands and unavailability of jobs for their graduate sons.
During the protest, they displayed placards with inscriptions such as, ‘we have no more farm land’, ‘pay us compensation for our crops’, ‘Alode women say no to injustice’, Alode women in tears’.
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Speaking in an interview, a community women leader, Dr. Patience Osaroejiji explained that, “the women don’t have any other thing, that’s the only place they have farmed for the past two years, what are we going to do?
“From the other end, Okrika people are pursuing us, from this end government is now pursuing us again, there is hunger in the town.
“We know that the land law says that government own all the land. Okay they came and said they want to use that place for new port city, we didn’t object, the problem is that they did not do any consultation and then pay compensation because these women have planted all their cassava for how many years on that place. They just came with traitors and started excavating and demolishing the whole place.
“It’s only women that put food on the table these days because there is no job for our sons, for our husbands and most of these women are widows and so that is the only livelihood they have.
“We are not happy that this kind of thing has happened in our land. It’s a lot of farm land that are on that place. You can imagine, some of them have 17 plots of farm land, some have 19, some have eight where they have planted cassava, it is sad.”
Osaroejiji further warned that, “the cry of women is a very dangerous thing on the community and it’s a very dangerous thing on the government, so when they don’t listen to the voice of women, calamity will come around.”
