Tension has gripped the mining communities of Obajana in Lokoja Local Government Area of Kogi State following the incident that led to the closure of the Dangote Cement factory.
Several staff of the company, were reportedly injured on Wednesday when hundreds of youths stormed the main gate of the factory and had confrontations with the policemen guarding the plant.
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The Corporate Affairs and Communication Department of the Dangote Group had in a statement on Wednesday said several staff of the company received gunshots when over 500 armed members of the Kogi State’s security outfit, the Vigilantes, stormed the factory.
The statement added that the said vigilante group members were wielding arms of different kinds wheny the stormed the factory.
It added that the injured staff had been taken to hospitals for treatment.
But, in a swift reaction, the Kogi State government stated that it was jubilant youths who chased the workers away after sealing the factory.
The state Commissioner for Information and Communication, Kinsley Fanwo, in a statement, said the state government sealed the factory in Obajana following agitations by Kogi indigenes on the questionable circumstances surrounding the acquisition of the company.
Reports from the communities on Thursday stated that the residents of the cement town were wearing mourning looks, bemoaning the unfolding crisis rocking their communities.
Many shops, business centres and eateries in the town remained under lock and key for fear of the unknown.
However, discordant tunes have been trailing the sealing of the company.
The mining community of Iwa and Oyo in the Obajana enclave described the action of the youth as falling short of maturity and civility.
In particular, the spokesperson of the Iwa mining community, Rotimi Kekereowo, stated that the coming on the stream of the company to their community had helped them, saying they will not support any action that will bring hardships to their community.
Also, the spokesperson for the Oyo mining community, Mr David Oluruntoba, called for caution, describing the incident as ‘’primitive and disgraceful’.
He said the community had just signed a Community Development Agreement (CDA) with the company besides providing them with jobs.
The Olu of Akpata in the mining community, Fredrick Balogun, said royal fathers “will continue to seek the path of reconciliation and amicable resolution of any misunderstanding. We don’t have issues with the company.”
Meanwhile, the Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, has said that the state is ready to open up discussions once Dangote Company Plc is ready to come clean.
The governor disclosed this in Lokoja on Thursday during the public presentation of the report of the Specialised Technical Committee on the Evaluation of the Legality of the Alleged Acquisition of Obajana Cement Company Plc by Dangote Cement Company Limited.
Bello said that he had taken the bold step in line with his mandate to safeguard the lives and livelihood of the people of Kogi.
“We received several petitions from the general public over this particular subject matter. In the past five to six years, all efforts to sit with the proprietors of the Dangote Conglomerate failed.
“We set up a committee to look into this and invited the Dangote company to discuss with them and tell them the imminent dangers they are exposing the people to, but it all fell on deaf ears,” he said.
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