SOCAPALM - APOUH A NGOG LAND DISPUTE

GDA document about land illegalities in Apouh a Ngog discussed at the PM’s office.

The document produced by legal experts of the Green Development Advocates relating to the illegalities of the acquisition and management of some land spaces around the Apouh a Ngog community by SOCAPALM was at the centre of discussions at the Prime Minister’s Office Wednesday 5 March 2026.

This was during an inter-ministerial meeting convened specially for that purpose in which the Special Adviser Number 2 at the Prime Minister’s Cabinet was presiding. The meeting brought together all the key stakeholders involved in the land tenure process and which has been the subject of disagreements between the SOCAPALM management and the local populations for some years now.

The Wednesday meeting is a milestone development in the SOCAPALM – Apouh conflict considering that it was the second, holding within the shortest space of time and focused on giving the conflicting parties the opportunity to state their claims. It was also an opportunity for any of them to raise any objection that they deemed could be made with regard to the facts raised in the GDA document.

Not long ago, the women of AFRIS Campo (a local non-governmental organization actively engaged in this land conflict) had organised a peaceful protest around the company’s vicinity to clamour for access into their farmlands. That incident was a repeat scenario of the previous years when they rallied themselves to stop the company from engaging into a replanting of palms in their vital spaces. Their presence at the meeting may give credence to their actions which the GDA document itself did underscore were legitimate and subject to denial either by both parties or the administration itself, should there have been any facts to prove the contrary. The silence on this and any other issue raised in the document by the tri-partite assembly undoubtedly gives credence to the validity of the GDA stand.

It is not likely that GDA would be summoned again by government to state their legal arguments before them, since such arguments have been the subject of discussions in two inter-ministerial meetings with GDA taking part in one of them. What all the parties involved in this conflict are expecting now are the implementations of the other recommendations outlined in the GDA document. This would reflect the spirit of understanding demonstrated by the administration in this regard as it has done in the compliance of the ongoing inter-ministerial meeting which reasonably is a muli-stakeholder consultation as recommended in the document.