Laleye Dipo in Minna
The multi-billion naira Zungeru Dam project, nearing completion in Niger State, is already attracting negative reactions from the host communities and those displaced from their ancestral homes, leading to a petition being written to both the federal and Niger State governments on the issue.
One of the complaints of those displaced is that they have not been adequately compensated for the loss of their land, economic trees and other valuable items and where compensation was made the beneficiaries were “shortchanged.”
Another issue raised by the communities in the petition authored by the Coordinators of the Concerned Shiroro Youths, Comrades Abdullahi Yussuf Kokki and Bello Ibrahim presented to journalists in Minna recently, was that people around the dam were already witnessing the negative effect of the multi-billion naira project.
“Unfortunately, many intricacies and inadequacies have been occasioned by monumental scam arising from crass negligence and complacency from the combined conspiracy of the handlers of the project on one hand and the affected communities’ representatives on the other hand even before the completion of the gigantic power plant,” the group stated in the petition.
“In respect of compensation, a monumental and catastrophic scam took centre-stage by way of shortchanging virtually all people directly affected by the dam construction.
“It is on record that while some people’s properties including land and houses were grossly undervalued, which resulted in inadequate compensation, some people were not compensated at all,” the petitioners claimed.
According to them, “the negative effect of the dam has started rearing its ugly head. Water backwash as a result of preliminary blockage of water is the new sheriff in town now.
“We are currently experiencing flooding upstream thereby submerging and consuming our ancestral farm land, as well as washing away our crops, among others.”
They added that: “The level of devastation and destruction have gone out of proportion and beyond imagination. People have been rendered homeless and are currently hopelessly wallowing in misery and inhabitable conditions; desperately looking for shelter.”
The petitioners also vehemently opposed the nomenclature of the dam, Zungeru Dam, saying: “The Zungeru Hydro Electric project is in Gungu in the Manta District of Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State and not in Wushishi Local Government Area.
“For rational justice and fairness, the hydropower dam should be named after its host village, the name should be Gungu, Manta or Shiroro 11 Hydro Electric Power Station not Zungeru Hydro Electric Power Station as erroneously being called by the Federal Ministry of Power and the consortium.”
The Niger State Government could not be reached for comments on the issue as at press time.
