Dredgers Association of Nigeria (DAN) has lampooned Epe fish farmers for undermining the ongoing investigative process on the Tilapia fish mortality through premature and unsubstantiated claims in the media.
This is even as it has issued a stern warning to the fish farmers, threatening legal action over what it describes as baseless accusations against its member, Renecon Limited.
Recall that in a bid to resolve the ongoing dispute between fish farmers and a dredging company, Renecon Limited over fish mortality in Epe Local Government Area of Lagos State, the Mineral Resources and Environmental Management Committee (MIREMCO) stepped in to mediate the situation, ordering both parties to return to their business activities while the matter is being thoroughly investigated.
The Committee also urged that both parties should stay off further public spat and name callings until investigations are fully conducted and parties invited to hear and analyse results of findings.
However, the General Secretary of DAN, Mr Richard Ntan while addressing journalists on Wednesday in Lagos, expressed frustration over what he perceived as efforts by the fish farmers to undermine the ongoing investigations into the Tilapia fish mortality incident. He alleged that there are attempts by the fish farmers to tarnish the reputation of Renecon Limited through premature and unsubstantiated claims in the media despite ongoing investigations.
Ntan noted that despite the absence of concrete evidence linking dredging activities to the fish deaths, recent reports in prominent newspapers have implicated Renecon Limited. He emphasized that such accusations are damaging and could adversely affect the company’s standing in the industry.
The DAN General Secretary, raised an alarm over the underhand tactics of the fish farmers to undermine the issue under investigations. He informed that there are suspicions of collusion between the fish farmers and parties with vested interests in halting Renecon’s operations.
Ntan emphasized that any further attacks or media judgments by the fish farmers would prompt Renecon Limited to pursue legal recourse to protect its reputation. He added that Renecon Limited has officially protested the publications and intends to seek legal protection against further defamation.
Speaking further, Ntan urged MIREMCO to take judicial notice of this deliberate breach of its commitment to find peace and maintain cordial relationship between the two parties and hold the fish farmers and their collaborators responsible for any possible violence or damage to Renecon property and equipment.
The association stated that the on-going committee’s investigation is expected to shed light on the actual causes of the fish deaths, aiming at bringing a resolution that maintains the interests of all stakeholders involved.
In his words: “Barely a week after, MIREMCO officials visited the site of our member, Renecon, in furtherance to the investigation as promised during the peace parley, and to which we consider laudable and a promise kept to get to the root of the incidence, we were shocked to read on the pages of the Punch Newspaper of Sunday, April 7, 2024, page 23 and also Daily Sun, Tuesday, April 9, page 23, narratives by the fish farmers, clearly inciting a well crafted agenda to nail activities of Renecon Limited, our member as cause of the unfortunate incident.
“We called this press conference to raise an alarm about the underhand tactics of the fish farmers who now probate and reprobate on an issue under investigations. The Dredgers Association of Nigeria will not hesitate to head to court to bring the fisher farmers and all its leaders who granted what is clearly a false narrative without any iota of scientific evidence to buttress their premeditated agenda to rubbish the name of Renecon Limited to pay for their hate speech.
“MIREMCO should take judicial notice of this deliberate breach of its avowed commitment to find peace and maintain cordial relationship between the two parties and all the concerned stakeholders by the fish farmers and their collaborators and hold them responsible for any possible violence or damage to Renecon property and equipment. By the false tales as stated in the two newspapers, the fish farmers had incited innocent members of public against Renecon Limited, thus putting the lives of its owners and workers in danger and also deliberately procured and instigated possible mob reactions against the operations of the company whose only offence is to operate outside the fish farmers cadastral”, Ntan noted.
