Residents of Excellent Estate in Igboloye community, Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State have cried out to Governor Dapo Abiodun over alleged pollution of their community by a tyre recycling company, Terra Aqua Ltd.

A statement jointly signed by the chairman and secretary of the residents’ association, Pastor Chidi Ulelu and Alhaja Badmus, urged Abiodun to intervene before it’s too late.

The statement read in part: “The activities of this TERRA AQUA TYRE PYROLYSIS company have led to several severe sicknesses, consistent discomfort, and even one suspected death.

“Their business activity, in summary, involves burning tyres to release both the gas and solid components and use them to produce syngas and black oil to be used as fuel for their other factories and economic benefit. The process releases very poisonous hydrocarbons into the atmosphere and the surrounding environment, and these hydrocarbons are poisonous to human beings, animals, and plants, as they poison the air, the land, the surface water, and underground water, causing a lot of harmful effects, sicknesses, and even death.

“When the company starts operating their factory, an asphyxiating and pungent odour is usually emitted, choking people and leading to shortness of breath. On some occasions, they emit terrible smoke, and on one occasion, there was an unimaginable fire outbreak on top of an estimated half a million old and used tyres stored openly in their compound, and they keep gathering more.

“On May 2, 2023, we wrote a detailed request to Ogun State Ministry of Environment to come and stop them since they are operating illegally and destroying the lives of people.

“They stopped them to see if there could be a remedy. There was no remedy, but unilaterally, they started operations again. By February 19, 2024, we petitioned the Governor of Ogun and referred to our earlier letter to the Commissioner of Environment in Ogun State. Later, we went to the governor’s office in Abeokuta on a peaceful protest and were addressed by a representative of the governor who promised to intervene, but they failed to do anything.

“We continued protesting and writing to the ministry more than eight times in between, till January 2025, when the fire broke out in their pile of hundreds of thousands of tyres. Later, the Commissioner of Environment visited in the company of the Ado-Odo/Ota local government chairman and shut down the company indefinitely, this very January 2025.

“Suddenly, last week, they started operation again, and the community mobilized and peacefully stopped them because we asked them for the authority from the commissioner, and they said their own management told them to operate in defiance of the government closure order. Their latest act is to resort to intimidation and harassment of community leaders by threats and also using security agencies.”

Meanwhile, in his response, the Managing Director of Terra Aqua Ltd, Mr. Salako, said that it was not true his company has been polluting the community.

He said: “There is no truth in the allegations. My company does not emit any effluent into the air or discharge wastewater into the community.

“I reported the matter to the police after the residents embarked on a protest at my company’s premises and smashed window glass and manhandled some of my workers.”