Ogoni Community Protests Exclusion From Industrial Park Host Areas

The people of Taabaa in Khana local government area of Rivers State have frowned at the exclusion of the community’s name among the host areas of the proposed Ogoni Industrial Park.

The reaction followed the handing over of 40 hectares of land by Nyokuru and Beeri communities to the federal government through the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) on Thursday.

The Ogoni Industrial Park is part of the confidence building measures agreed by the federal government and the Ogoni people through the Ogoni Dialogue Committee (ODC) for the resumption of oil exploration in Ogoniland.

Speaking with newsmen at Bori, the secretary of Barasi-Taabaa Council of Chiefs, Elders, CDC and Youths, Chief Pyagbara Gote-Nee-uwe, said the exclusion of Taabaa as one of the host communities to the proposed project was unacceptable.

Gote-Nee-uwe stated that about 54 plots of the community’s land was included in the 40 hectares handed over to the federal government.

He noted that the community has earlier complained to the Ogoni Dialogue Committee during the surveying of the land with a promise by the committee to be recognised as one of the host communities but said he was surprised that during the official handing over, there was no mention of the community.

“On the 21st of August, 2025, we raised concern about this and we were invited by the Ogoni Dialogue Committee led by Professor Don Baridam and Archbishop Kattey. So we went there and we presented our issue of how part of Taabaa land has been included in the survey, they told us that we should not worry further, that they have also been told during consultation with the Nyokuru people that Taabaa land is there.

“They told us to go and stop every action we should have taken that they are going to consult us at the handover of the land to the Federal Government,” the secretary said.

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‎The community stressed that they were not against the building of the project on their land but stated that their sacrifice of land donation should be recognised.

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‎Gote-Nee-uwe insisted that if the project executors won’t recognise their sacrifice, then the survey plan be reviewed so that the community can take back its lands.

‎”54 plots of land was captured from Taabaa into that survey plan and so it’s either they will include us as part of the host communities or they review the survey plan and delete our own side of it. Let our land be for our people.

‎ “We are not against this project. It’s a project we are all in need of because it will bring development to the Nyor-Khana people, but we should not be deprived of our own inheritance.

“If other communities are recognized as host communities because they donated land to this projects, Taabaa should also be recognized as host community because we donated land too,” he stated.

‎The monarch called on President Bola Tinubu, Office of the National Security Adviser, Rivers State Government and security agencies to prevail on the relevant agencies to include Taabaa in the land ownership for the proposed project.

‎Also speaking, Mr Godspower Mbaedee, acting youth leader of Barasi -Taabaa said the community won’t fold its arms to see their land collected without any recognition. He joined the call for the community’s recognition among the host communities or its land returned.