Residents Flee Homes Over Pollution By Chinese Company

CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

The residents of Odo Kekere and its environs in the Ikorodu area of Lagos have abandoned their properties and fled from their homes over environmental air pollution caused by a Chinese company sited in the area.

The Chinese company known as Punkit Alloyed and Allied Company is located almost at the centre of the community that harbours over 5,000 residents.

According to the residents, the company has really turned to be a curse to them as they claimed they were dying slowly due to environmental pollution in the area.

P.M.EXPRESS investigation revealed that some of the residents have actually abandoned their homes and relocated elsewhere as they claimed that the heat substance the company was producing contained some acidic chemical substances causing health hazards and deaths daily.
Thus, the entire community has alleged that despite repeated alarms raised by the residents, the government was still silent and they were dying one after the other.
“It was an act of deliberate conspiracy between the company and the Lagos State government agencies such as LASEMA and Ministry of the Environment to wipe out the inhabitants so that the company will take over the entire area and expand more” the residents alleged.
Some of the residents who narrated their ordeal said they bought lands and built their houses many years ago before the company was sited there. They revealed that when the company came, they were happy and had hoped it will assist to bring development to the area and their properties will get more value.
However, they alleged that it has turned out to be a curse to them as not only that their property have lost value, they have lost some of their relatives due to health hazards caused by the company who went on the buying spree of the abandoned properties in the area.

All the residents who spoke to P.M.EXPRESS said similar things on their ordeal in the area and blamed the government for abandoning them at their time of need. They said they observed the traces of danger when the company initially began production; they noticed that the whole area turned to black because of the heavy smoke coming from the machines they were using for production.

They alleged that the thick smoke usually circulated for several days across the area causing all manner of diseases, and all efforts to prevail on the company to do something proved abortive.
“We cannot open our windows, doors or even pot of soup, the children were the ones mostly affected and they often became sick because of the pollution” one of the residents said.

P.M.EXPRESS asked to know if the government was aware of the condition. The residents said that Lagos State government was aware because the residents had written petitions to both LASEMA and Ministry of the Environment, they went to the company, they were settled and they did not hear anything again on the matter.
When our correspondent visited the area, some of the buildings had been abandoned while some people still remained there hoping for government intervention.
Most of the residents lamented that they used all the money they had to develop the place and now being disturbed by the pollution, they had no money to relocate to another place. Some said they have relocated their families and remained there to find the solution to the problem.

P.M.EXPRESS visited the company at Ikorodu and contacted the management concerning the pollution. They initially declined to speak to our reporter. However, one of them later called the reporter and claimed to be the manager of the company. He said that the company had done its own part by drilling boreholes, constructing culverts for the people but denied that they were using any chemical substance in the area. On relocation of the residents, he said that a good number of them were still around and it was only the few people that were complaining that have relocated.

However, the manager did not address the issue of pollution and said that the land was duly allocated to the company and that they have good working relationship with the government agents.
This explained why LASEMA and Ministry of the Environment may have not acted in any way to alleviate the suffering of the residents.
The Ministry of the Environment and LASEMA could not be reached as at the time of filing this report as all efforts to contact them proved abortive.