Okomu Oil Palm Plc, a multi-billion naira investment agro-allied company listed on the Nigerian Exchange, has raised concerns over the threat to its investment in Edo State by militants who disrupt its operations and attack its workers.
The company said it would shut down if the attacks persisted.
It said this following the latest attack and killing of three of its workers inside the plantation on Monday, May 6.
The company’s managing director, Graham Hefer, raised these concerns in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Okomu.
Okumu is situated in the Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State.
“The female worker, who was held hostage but managed to escape unhurt, said the six armed gunmen came in through the Okomu Riverside and also escaped through the same route in their motorboat.
“This is one of the two incidences within a space of one week. Last week, armed gunmen ambushed the company’s patrol vehicle, which they riddled with bullets,” Heifer said.
While lamenting the worsening security situation in the area, he noted that if the situation was left unchecked, the company could halt its operations.
Heifer said the government should take control of the area currently being terrorised by militants.
“We have repeatedly said the government should put a military base in the plantation. It’s absurd that we pay over N12 billion in taxes to the government annually and still are left to fend and seek security for equipment and personnel by ourselves,” he said.
He noted that management had been funding its security despite paying more in taxes without commensurate support from the government.
He lamented that the police had yet to bring reinforcements to the area to restore confidence in the workers since Monday’s incident.
Heifer, therefore, urged the state government to urgently address the security situation within the locality and the state in general to restore investors’ confidence.
Speaking with NAN, the state Commissioner of Police, Funsho Adegboye, argued that more men had been deployed by the state command to the area to forestall a repeat of the attack, saying it was shocking that the gunmen could carry out such an attack.
According to him, the attackers were from a neighbouring state.
He further said there had been efforts to arrest the culprits and bring them to book.
“Preliminary findings showed that the gunmen came from the creek in a neighbouring state, which I would not like to mention. The attack is shocking.
“However, more men have been deployed to the area to forestall a repeat, and the police, in conjunction with Okomu, are working to ensure that the culprits are arrested.
“We will not allow such an occurrence to happen in the state again,” the CP added.
Insecurity and uncertainty in Nigeria’s economic environment are among the reasons many companies are shutting down. (NAN)
