Tribune | 6 January 2016

by Banji Aluko-Benin City

The issue of indiscriminate allocation of community land to companies in the Niger Delta region has been brought to the front burner by stakeholders on environmental and human rights issues in the area with a resolve to tackle headlong the growing challenge of land grabbing by multinational companies operating in the states.

The stakeholders, who were drawn from states in the oil rich Niger Delta region and Ekiti State, at a one-day national conference put in place in Benin City, Edo State, by the Environmental Rights Action and Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) in collaboration with Global Forest Watch/World Resources Institute, lamented that communities leaders and state governments were opening up avenues for companies to grab community land.