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Invaders Run Sinoe Plantation with Impunity

October 21, 2024

Top: Men work at a palm oil mill formerly owned by Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) now run by Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI) without the approval of the Liberian government or the consent of local people. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Varney Kamara

SHAMPAY CAMP – Liberia National Produce Incorporated (LNPI), an oil palm company that encroached on an abandoned palm plantation in Sanquin District, Sinoe County about a year ago, continues to run the facility despite not meeting legal requirements, including the consent of the local landowners.

In 2022, LNPI purchased the 8,400-hectare palm plantation in the Sanquin District for about US$445,000 from Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO), which had abandoned the facility three years earlier. However, LNPI has not regularized the takeover to operate. A DayLight investigation in August found that the company forced residents out of the plantation with the aid of armed police officers.

Now two months after the investigation, LNPI continues to operate the facility. New evidence and interviews conducted by The DayLight show that LNPI is not compliant with several Liberian laws and international best practices.

This supports the Ministry of Agriculture’s claim that it was unaware of LNPI’s operations. Legally, the Inter-ministerial Concession Committee, including the Ministry of Agriculture, the Bureau of Concessions and the National Investment Commission (NIC), approves takeovers.

The DayLight has seen a copy of the LNPI draft concession agreement, without key signatures, including then-President George Weah and then-Minister of Finance Samuel Tweah’s.

In a September response to The DayLight’s queries, NIC appeared to corroborate the Ministry of Agriculture’s statement. “The Government of Liberia… provided consent to the transfer, contingent upon the new buyer’s commitment to resuscitate the plantation and ensure compliance with all applicable taxes and regulations under [the] Liberian law,” wrote the Executive Director of the NIC Melvin Sheriff.

Evidence of LNPI’s operations is aplenty. The DayLight witnessed workers active at a palm mill the company renovated, with smoke rising from the facility overhead. Fresh brushing spots along the main road to the Shampay Camp, where workers of the defunct Butaw Oil Palm Company lived. A giant-wheeled transporter plied the road.

Before announcing the takeover, LNPI secured an environmental permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after conducting an environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) between February and May last year.

With the help of armed police, LNPI has forced camp dwellers out of the plantation and allegedly seized their personal belongings. Nestled between hills and forests, Shampay Camp once thrived and served as a palm oil hub. People in and out of the area exploit the plantation to produce palm oil.

“We are living in hell here. They always make us scared. They took my freedom mill machine and spoiled it. We have no space to breathe,” said Fatu Sheriff, an elderly woman.

“One man from the company came to my house. He told me that if I did not stop buying and selling oil on the camp, he would order the security to beat me and take me away from the camp by force,” Sheriff added.

“Then, I looked in his face and told him that if he wanted to, he should go ahead and kill me, but I was not taking one foot from my house to go anywhere.”

Smoke billows from a palm oil mill in Sanquin District, Sinoe County. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

Sheriff’s comments and others The DayLight heard validate townspeople the newspaper interviewed in June this year. LNPI did not return emailed queries in response to issues in this story.

LNPI proposes that locals allow the company to operate. In the document, seen by The DayLight, LNPI proposes to pay benefits to the community, including a monthly payment of US$1,000 to the community development fund, rental fees, and engaging in community development. Once these conditions are satisfied, the agreement allows for the company to operate without “any disturbance or embarrassment.”

“This is manually agreed by the parties that the monthly payments are an advance on any community’s obligations the company needs to pay once the concession agreement has been approved by the Government of Liberia,” reads the proposed MoU.

The local community rejects the proposed MoU.

“The company is operating on our land without authorization,” said Ericson Pyne, a youth leader in Tarsue Chiefdom. “We have repeatedly asked them to show us the concession agreement, but they have refused.”

The Sinoe County’s Superintendent Peter Wleh Nyensuah sides with the LNPI despite its glaring illegitimacy. In a letter to the Tarsue Chiefdom last month, Nyensuah urged locals to let the company operate.

“The Taruse community having received benefits under the now expired MoU from LNPI, the community lacks the standing to question the legitimacy of LNPI. The community can renew or renegotiate another MoU through the Office of the Superintendent,” read Nyensuah’s letter. Locals had filed a complaint with the Superintendent’s Office, expressing dissatisfaction over the company’s failure to present its concession agreement.

The people of Tarsue Chiefdom in Sanquin District, Sinoe County are unaware of the operations of Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI). The DayLight/Varney Kamara

Nyensuah’s comments are not based on facts. In the MoU he referenced, the Tarsue Chiefdom did not empower the company to run the plantation. Instead, it granted LNPI the sole right to purchase palm oil from locals.

‘Organic palm oil’

LNPI’s involvement with the plantation violates the Land Rights Act and the principles and criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a watchdog writing rules for the global oil palm industry.

Both the law and the RSPO rules recognize ancestral land ownership and communities’ right to consent to projects intended for their lands. Liberia created the law in 2018 and adopted the RSPO rules three years later. This means they were not nonexistent when EPO took over the plantation from Liberia Forest Produce Incorporated in 2008.

James Otto, a lead campaigner at the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), urges LNPI to inform the community of its intent to operate on their land and obtain a concession agreement.

“The company needs to have a well-designed concession negotiation through the FPIC process,” said Otto, whose NGO helped lodge the successful complaint against GVL in 2013 for communities. “The company needs to provide all the proper information to the community.

“There should be a formal lease agreement between the company and the landowners before the company starts operation,” added Otto.

LNPI is noncompliant with the Beneficial Ownership Regulation, which requires businesses in Liberia to declare their beneficial owners or the human beings who own them. This rule helps combat everything from money laundering to terrorist financing.

LNPI is a subsidiary of Konnex Investments Limited, with 51 percent of the company’s shares. The remaining 49 percent unsubscribed, according to LNPI’s articles of incorporation. However, the Liberia Business Registry said it did not have a list of the company’s owners, violating the regulation.

Also, there is no record of Konnex Investments Ltd. on the official public registry of all British firms. Konnex is not on OCCRP aleph, operated by the Organized Crimes and Corruption Reporting Project, one of the world’s largest public databases of companies.

A screenshot of a LinkedIn post of Uday Pilani, Konnex Investments Ltd.’s owner, claiming to be RSPO-complaint, producing organic palm oil and uplifting indigenous communities.

In a LinkedIn post last year, Uday Pilani, LNPI’s chairman per its website, identified himself as the owner of Konnex Investments Ltd. Pilani claims that the company uplifts indigenous communities, is RSPO-complaint and produces organic palm oil.

But the claims are the exact opposite of the company’s activities.

LNPI deceived locals into signing an MoU likely to gain control of the plantation before informing them about its takeover. It even violated the terms of the deceptive deal by extending it by several months.

That conduct breaks the RSPO’s first rule that requires oil palm companies to operate ethically and transparently. Because of the breach of that rule, the RSPO ordered Golden Veroleum Liberia to renegotiate an MoU with Tarjuwon, Butaw, and other areas after it was found GVL guilty of disrespecting those communities’ right to consent.

Then Pilani’s organic palm claim is not consistent with the definition of the phrase. Organic palm oil production involves sustainable farming that is environmentally responsible, socially equitable, economically viable, and prevents deforestation while protecting workers’ rights and the welfare of local communities, according to the RSPO. In contrast, LNPI’s activities undermine the descriptions of organic palm oil.

The Ministry of Justice, which negotiates concessions agreements, said it was investigating LNPI’s operations.

Sinoe Superintendent Supports Illegal Oil Palm Operations

October 15, 2024

Top: Sinoe County’s Superintendent Peter Wleh Nyensuah supports the illegal operations of Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI) without the Liberian government’s approval. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Varney Kamara

GREENVILLE – Sinoe County’s Superintendent Peter Wleh Nyensuah is backing an oil palm company’s illegitimate operations against a local community demanding its rights and holding the firm accountable.

In 2022, Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI) purchased a palm plantation in the Tarsue Chiefdom of Sanquin District from Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO). However, LNPI operates the plantation without the Liberian government’s approval, sparking a protest.

In a letter last month, seen by The DayLight, Nyensuah urged Tarsue to sign an MoU LNPI proposes, dismissing the community’s concerns over rights abuses and the LNPI’s illegitimacy.

“It is my strongest anticipation that you will work with the investors in our communities,” wrote Nyensuah. He even suggested he was open to playing a role in negotiating the MoU or drafting a new one.

Nyensuah had launched an investigation after tension brewed in the area following the community’s complaint.

He based his decision partly on a previous MoU that locals had signed with LNPI. “The Tarsue community having received benefits under the now expired MoU from LNPI, the community lacks the standing to question the legitimacy of the LNPI,” Nyensuah added.

But his reason for his decision is faulty. The document he referenced only gave LNPI an exclusive right to purchase oil from local producers, not to operate the plantation. A DayLight investigation established that LNPI likely used the document to gain control of the plantation during last year’s heated presidential elections.

In his finding, Nyensuah claimed that the government and LNPI amended the 2008 EPO concession agreement in March. However, there is no public record to support that claim.

Men at work at and palm oil mill in Shampay Camp, Tarsue Chiefdom. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

The government and LNPI have said the company’s operations have not been authorized. The Ministries of Agriculture and Justice, responsible for authorizing oil palm concessions, said it was unaware of LNPI’s operations. LNPI itself admitted that in a June interview with this newspaper, a fact it included in the draft MoU to Tarsue.

‘Bogus MoU’

Nyensuah’s unlawful decision has inflamed the situation in Tarsue and may have soured his relationship with the community.

“We are rejecting the MoU because it is a bogus agreement. We want to see LNPI’s Concession Agreement with the government,” said Ericson Pyne, a youth leader. We want to see their letter of authorization.

“I think Superintendent Nyensuah is not capable of leading this county because, as a leader of the county, before coming up with such a proposal, you must have properly read and understood previous agreements. We totally disagree with his suggestion,” added Pyne.

Pyne’s comments reflect the views of the people of Tarsue who have endured threats and intimidations at the hands of LNPI, with armed police forcing people out of the plantation.

The DayLight investigation revealed that LNPI violates the Land Rights Act and the principles of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which writes rules for the oil palm industry worldwide.

The law and the RSPO rules recognize ancestral landownership and communities’ right to consent to projects intended for traditional territories.

Nyensuah did not respond to The DayLight’s queries for comments on the matter.

Investors Invade Sinoe Palm Plantation

August 10, 2024

Top: An elevated view of an oil palm mill at a plantation Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) abandoned five years ago. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By James Harding Giahyue, Derick Snyder and Varney Kamara

In August 2022, Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI) purchased an abandoned palm plantation from Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) in a deal worth approximately US$445,000

Publicity of the deal was scanty, limited to a LinkedIn post, a reference on LNPI’s website and an announcement hidden in EPO’s parent company’s annual reports.

The Liberian government has not approved of the takeover, with the Ministry of Agriculture and the lawmaker of that district unaware of the deal.

Yet, LNPI is forcibly operating the plantation, including a prewar oil palm mill. With the help of armed police officers, the company is throwing residents out of the plantation.

The company disregards local communities’ ownership of the land and their right to consent to the takeover.

SHAMPAY CAMP, Sinoe County – In June, armed police officers ordered Felecia Wesseh and other villagers to leave an abandoned palm plantation. A company called the Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated (LNPI) told the residents they were taking over a portion of the 8,000-hectare plantation from Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO), which had run it in 2019. Wesseh and other residents exploited the plantation and transformed the region into an artisanal palm oil hub ever since.

“I feel bad because number one, for me, this is my 25 years in this area. “The way the Emergency Response Unit [of the Liberia National Police] is coming here to take people from this place is not good,” said Wesseh, a mother in her late 30s. The DayLight interviewed her at her shop in Sankwehn Estate in Tarsue Chiefdom, Sanquin District locals have called Shampay Camp since the 1960s. A crowd of angry residents quickly gathered, questioning the legality of the takeover.

“By right, if you own the plantation or buy the area, I expect the Superintendent… to come with one of the lawmakers to show the people to us. Nobody brought them to show them to us,” Wesseh added.

Wesseh was right. There is evidence that LNPI bought the plantation from EPO. However, no one in the Sanquin District is aware of the takeover, and it has not been approved by the Liberian government.

In August 2022, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK) of Malaysia, EPO’s owner, sold the plantation to Konnex Investments Limited, the parent company of LNPI, for approximately US$445,000, according to KLK’s annual report for that year. Uday Pilani, Konnex’s owner posted the deal on LinkedIn and LNPI mentioned it on its website a month earlier.

EPO owned the plantation through its subsidiary Liberia Forest Product Incorporated (LFPI). LFPI signed the concession with the Liberian government in 2008 for 50 years, covering 8,400 hectares. However, in 2019, EPO ceased operations because there “were insufficient plantable areas,” making it “uneconomic” to run. It devalued the plantation by RM145.3 million (approximately US$32.2 million).

Scores of local palm oil producers, including Felecia Wesseh, depend on the plantation, which covers about 4,000 hectares of palm trees. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

But the deal was not entirely transparent. KLK, required to declare such transactions under Bursa Malaysia or the Malaysian stock exchange rules, announced the takeover in its 2022 annual report. However, there is no record that EPO—under a similar obligation with the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange—publicized the takeover. This likely breaches AIM’s rule, which mandates companies to publish such transactions. EPO did not return questions for comments regarding the takeover and KLK said it would respond.

‘Into a hole’

The Shampay Camp part of the story began on August 23, 2022, when LNPI signed a six-month memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the people of Sanquin District. Per the MoU, LNPI bought a five-gallon tin of palm oil for L$1,300 and L$1,500. LNPI paid the community US$6,000 and paved a major road there.

Local palm oil dealers had welcomed the agreement as LNPI prices more than double the L$600 artisanal palm oil producers had set, while chiefs and elders saw it as an opportunity for development.

“When they came, it was correct because they paid our royalties,” recalled Alfred Pyne, an elder of Sanquin.

But the MoU was too attractive to be true. While the community was entitled to several benefits, the MoU restricted LNPI to “purchasing of oil palm products such as crude palm oil, palm kernels and other palm derivatives,” and to operate “without any embarrassment and undue restrictions.”

LNPI’s true intent surfaced when it unilaterally extended the deal by three months. Following a year of anger, the parties met in January this year when LNPI finally disclosed it had taken over the plantation. The company was not merely a party to an MoU; it was claiming possession of Shampay Camp.

LNPI, aided by armed police officers, asked artisanal palm oil producers out of a plantation abandoned in 2019 by Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) in Sanquin District, Sinoe County. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

“When we saw Baccus Wiah with LNPI, I said, ‘A good thing is coming,’ not knowing we [were] getting into a hole,” said Eric Gbayon, the Township Commissioner of Tarsue Chiefdom. He was referencing LNPI’s administrative manager, who hails from that region.

In the end, the MoU was a disguise. By August 2022, LNPI had already signed the takeover, a negotiation it had started six months earlier, according to a document obtained by The DayLight. It had imported 117 consignments of electrical equipment and other instruments as of the 17^th of last month. They were imported from India, Pilani’s home country, according to Volza, a Russian online marketplace, citing international data.

Workers at a palm oil mill recently rehabilitated by the Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

The DayLight videotaped workers test the mill, which has a capacity of five metric tons of crude palm oil per hour. For the first time since the start of the First Liberian Civil War in 1989, smoke billowed from the facility’s chambers into the gloomy Shampay Camp skies.

Before it disclosed the takeover to the people, LNPI had obtained an environmental permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after conducting an environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) between February and May last year. It has asked for a renewal of the permit to extend the mill.

‘Not heard from them’

Tension has been brewing in Tarsue, particularly after the news of the takeover broke. After LNPI broke the news, locals asked to meet the company in Kommanah Town. LNPI instead requested to host the meeting at its headquarters in Shampay Camp, citing “continued threats of violence” from the community.

“If you are interested in meeting with me, please let me know so a time can be set that will be mutually convenient for both parties,” LNPI’s executive officer John Collie penned Paramount Chief John Koah a reply, seen by The DayLight.

Several receipts were issued by LNPI as part of its scam to operate a plantation it took over from Equatorial Palm Oil in August 2022 but has not been endorsed by the Liberian government. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

Months later, locals lodged a complaint with Representative Alex Noah of Sinoe County District Three over LNPI’s illegal activities. In their letter, they listed the company’s takeover of the plantation and renovation of the mill without their consent. “We need our timely intervention concerning this matter before things go out of hand,” the letter read. Noah said he was unaware of LNPI’s operations and would visit the plantation when he returned from his travels out of the country.

LNPI’s disregard for the community’s right to consent violates the Land Rights Act, which recognizes ancestral land rights. Locals’ consent is a crucial principle of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the watchdog of the global oil palm industry. Liberia has even domesticated the RSPO’s principles and criteria.

The Liberia Land Authority (LLA), which plays a role in land-related concessions, had recommended that LNPI get the locals’ consent but the company ignored the advice. LNPI had visited the LLA in Monrovia to seek counsel.

LLA’s Chairman Adams Manobah told The DayLight in a WhatsApp interview he had advised the community to first “formalize its land ownership before transacting business with an outsider or any investor.”

Manobah added, “Since that encounter, I have not heard of them.” Wiah did not respond to emailed questions on that conversation.

In an earlier interview at the company’s headquarters, Wiah justified LNPI’s use of force. “Due to the violence that took place here, since we have completed the factory and are ready for operation, we decided to bring [armed police officers] to be here to serve as [a] deterrent,” he said. “Our people are afraid of gunmen.”

Another elevated view of Shampay Camp with the smoke billowing from a palm oil mill at the background. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

Wiah admitted the government had not approved the LNPI’s takeover. An ex-EPO employee, however, Wiah claimed the approval was being processed. “The Ministries of Justice, and Agriculture have signed,” he told The DayLight. It is left with the Ministry of Finance, then it will go to the Senate, and finally to the President for signature.”

The Ministry of Agriculture dismisses Wiah’s claim. “It is important that we address this lack of awareness immediately,” Comfort Whitfield of the ministry’s communication division said in an email.

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series on illegal oil palm operations in the Sanquin District, Sinoe County. The second part will focus on the legality of the existence of Liberia Natural Produce Incorporated and its parent company Konnex Investments Ltd.

Tag: Konnex Investments Ltd

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