http://huhuonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4513:cameroon-local-chiefs-irate-about-dangote-cement-plant-force-shutdown&catid=89:finance&Itemid=379

The custodians of the Sawa tradition renown for blackmagic and other nefarious practices have advised Aliko Dangote, in his own interest to back off or face serious consequences.In the last two weeks, construction work on the Dangote cement plant currently underway in the Cameroonian economic

capital city of Douala has been halted after the indigenous peoples accused the government of colluding with the Dangote Group to expropriate their land. The local population has also expressed strong reservations about the environmental and noise pollution that will accompany the construction of such a plant in the heart of the city.

The indigenous peoples through their chiefs have advised the Nigerian billionaire magnate, Alhaji Aliko Dangote to hands off their land and have vowed to use all necessary measures including witchcraft and occultism to resist what they consider an invasion into their ancestral land, which hosts the sacred annual Ngondo celebrations. To wade off what was possibly an imminent crisis reaching breaking point, the Government Delegate to the Douala City Council, Dr. Fritz Ntone Ntone issued an administrative injunction stopping work on the site.

The construction of the cement plant, worth about FCFA 55-billion, was expected to be completed in 18 months. The site is located in an area called Base Elf on the shorelines of the River Wouri off the Atlantic coastline.Huhuonline.com was told by a source at the Douala city council that although the land in question has been the traditional venue of the annual Ngondo celebrations of the coastal Douala (aka Sawa people), “all land in Cameroon is government land” and that part of the appropriated land will be used to construct an ultra-modern public park to be offered the city council by the Dangote group.

But the Sawa chiefs are not impressed by this misinterpretation of Eminem domain laws, arguing that state authority is not a license for government to confiscate native land. Rising from their traditional Ngondo General Assembly last March 10, the Sawa Chiefs and elite resolved not to give up the place for whatsoever reason.

Aliko Dangote himself has given no immediate comment but Huhuonline.com learnt from sources in Douala that he has expressed the desire to negotiate with the chiefs. Reacting to the vexing issue of pollution, a staff of Dangote Industries Cameroon Ltd explained that they are shipping in ultra-modern and pollution-free equipment. "The equipment can be set up even in the heart of the city, and no one would suffer from noise or smoke. Our machines are environment-friendly, the official explained.

Huhuonline.com understand that the demand for cement in Cameroon and other neighboring Central African countries has been on the rise in recent years with an annual increase of 8%. Cameroon reportedly imported about 500,000 metric tons of cement in 2010, according to government data, indicating that the yearly demand for cement is estimated at four million metric tons.

Efforts by the government to boost domestic production saw supply increase from 1.6 million metric tons to an estimated 2.2 million metric tons leaving a deficit of 1.8 metric tons. To which end, the government invited private sector investments in the sector. It was within this context that two companies from Korea and the Dangote Group, signed investment agreements with government.

In September 2011, an agreement was signed between government and the Dangote Group, authorizing the latter to build a FCFA 55-billion cement plant in Douala with a capacity of one million metric tons of cement a year. The 2,000-metre piece of land that lies close to the Ngondo River Wouri banks cultural ground and Douala Ports Authority complex, was contracted from the government through a 30-year lease, a Dangote company staff explained, adding that Aliko Dangote has already dispatched a high-level delegation from Nigeria to open negotiations with the indigenous peoples.