Law

Silence at Samurai Nghi Thach project

Nhat Lan • July 7, 2025 17:19

Right next to the gate of Cua Lo ward and adjacent to Son market (Dong Loc commune) there is a large, abandoned land that has become a polluted waste collection point. According to the local people, that land is where the Samurai Company Limited project is carried out...

Nhat Lan• 06/07/2025

Right next to the gate of Cua Lo ward and adjacent to Son market (Dong Loc commune) there is a large, abandoned land that has become a polluted waste collection point. According to the local people, that land is where the Samurai Company Limited project is carried out...

Visiting the location where the people of Nghi Thach (old) reported, I felt that there was something "strange". That land area was estimated to be several hectares. The location was very beautiful, when it was close to two major roads, including National Highway 46 and Nguyen Sinh Cung Street. Walking around the land, what caught my eye were deep holes, stagnant water, overgrown grass mixed with debris and all kinds of waste. The land locations adjacent to National Highway 46 and Nguyen Sinh Cung Street had a few temporary houses operating various types of food services; a few houses were under construction. In the land area, there were a few internal traffic routes. Some land locations along these roads had foundations and concrete fences; some locations were being used as a gathering place for construction materials...

To the east of the land, adjacent to Son market, there is a concrete road leading to a residential area. Asking around, we learned that it belongs to Hamlet 2, the old Nghi Thach commune, now Dong Loc commune. Regarding the "abandoned" land, according to the local people, it is the site of a project by Samurai Company Limited. However, the project has been "shelved" for many years. Occasionally, there are small-scale construction activities here, but they are all suspended by the government, leading to an unfinished state. "People are very upset because the abandoned land has become a garbage dump, causing environmental pollution. We only know that there is a project there, but we don't know what kind of project it is. If you want to find out more, you should contact the Executive Committee of Hamlet 2...", a local said.

Contacting the Head of Hamlet 2, Ms. Nguyen Thi Le Na, when hearing about the land where the Samurai Company Limited project was implemented, she clearly expressed her indignation. Because "for many years the land has been left fallow, the hamlet has had no benefits, only negative consequences". In this conversation, Ms. Na said that before the Samurai Company Limited project, this was agricultural land cultivated by people of Nghi Thu ward (old Cua Lo town) and Nghi Thach commune (old). Regarding the current state of the land, according to Ms. Na, it has been going on for many years, causing officials and people to be very concerned about land management. "The project of Samurai Company Limited was planned and allowed to be implemented by superiors, but the Hamlet 2 Executive Committee does not know the specifics. However, the situation of leaving it fallow, leading to the people of Hamlet 2 suffering many negative effects, has been going on for many years...", Ms. Na said.

The most pressing issue for residents is environmental pollution, as the land is not managed and built by the investor. The land is right next to Son market, and there are a number of households trading spontaneously on the land, so the dumping of waste and wastewater is very difficult to manage. Environmental pollution is also caused by the land being in an unfinished state of leveling, and the drainage infrastructure is patchy in some places, and not in others, leading to stagnant wastewater, causing bad odors, insects, flies, and mosquitoes. During the rainy season, dirty water flows into the residential area, making the households near the land very miserable.

In addition, the security and order situation is also being affected, because most of the businesses on the land are not local people, and the hamlet cannot manage it. “This land is said to belong to hamlet 2, but it does not create any value for the hamlet. Even though we sent notices to the businesses on the land, and even met them in person, we could not collect the environmental sanitation fee. The reason is because they are not citizens of the hamlet. They replied that they had bought the project land so they had the right to lease it for business. A few days ago, we were informed by the people that the police had arrested a gambling case here...”, Ms. Na said.

Ms. Na was asked to provide information about the construction activities that had taken place on the land. According to her, these were all illegal construction activities that had taken place many years ago, and had been inspected and suspended by the authorities of Nghi Thach commune (old) and Nghi Loc district (old). “The houses on the land were built by Samurai Company Limited and some individuals. This construction took place a long time ago. Some of the house foundations and unfinished fences were built by people who bought land from Samurai Company Limited a few years ago. We do not know how the land was bought and sold, but the State has not yet granted land use rights, so it was suspended by Nghi Thach commune authorities…”.

According to Ms. Na, the Executive Committee of Hamlet 2 has repeatedly made recommendations to the commune and district, hoping that the State, if planning a project, should implement it to create stability; in case the investor does not implement the project, the land should be reclaimed to implement another project, avoiding the situation of prolonged land waste and affecting people's lives. Ms. Na said: "Representing the people of Hamlet 2, I have directly made recommendations to the Commune People's Council, District People's Council, and even to the Provincial People's Council delegates when meeting with voters of the commune. This is a very valuable land. If Samurai Company Limited does not implement the project, it should be reclaimed to implement another project suitable for the location of the land. Do not waste land, causing consequences for the people, and causing concerns and criticism in management work..."

Based on the current situation on the land where Samurai Company Limited is implementing the project, and the wishes of the officials and people of Hamlet 2, we have researched and collected a number of related documents. Among these, it shows that the Samurai Company Limited project was inspected and handled by the People's Committee of Nghi Thach Commune and the People's Committee of Nghi Loc District (old) for violations of construction order.

Specifically, on May 10, 2019, Nghi Loc District People's Committee issued Decision No. 4337/QD-XPHC to sanction administrative violations against Samurai Company Limited because this company arbitrarily converted non-agricultural land that is not residential land into residential land without permission from the competent State agency. Specifically, it arbitrarily built a level 4 house with dashboard bricks and corrugated iron roof; construction area of ​​240m²(length 20m, width 12m) at plot 252, map sheet number 1, Xuan Son hamlet, Nghi Thach commune). For this violation, Samurai Company Limited was fined 15 million VND, and at the same time, forced to demolish all the level 4 houses that had been built to restore the land to its condition before the violation; and forced to return the illegal profits gained from the violation. In Decision No. 4337/QD-XPHC, Nghi Loc District People's Committee emphasized: "Samurai Company Limited must strictly comply with this penalty decision; if it does not comply, it will be forced to do so."

Most notably is Report No. 44/BC.UBND dated April 19, 2021 of Nghi Thach Commune People's Committee sent to Nghi Loc District People's Committee, after discovering the case of unauthorized construction and illegal change of land use purpose at the project of Samurai Company Limited. Accordingly,nOn April 16, 2021, Nghi Thach Commune People's Committee inspected and discovered that Mr. PKD had arbitrarily built a kiosk on the project land plot of Samurai Company Limited. Specifically, he dug the foundation around the edges, built the foundation with dashboard bricks, 6m long, 0.4m wide, 0.7m deep. Nghi Thach Commune People's Committee (old) suspended and requested Mr. PKD to stop the construction of the kiosk, strictly prohibiting him from arbitrarily changing the land use purpose on the above land plot. However, an ironic situation occurred. That is, Mr. PKD informed that he had signed a contract and paid money to Samurai Company Limited to receive the land transfer; therefore, he did not comply with the suspension decision of Nghi Thach Commune People's Committee (old), and continued construction activities.

Because of this situation, in Report No. 44/BC.UBND dated April 19, 2021, Nghi Thach Commune People's Committee proposed: "For a long time, the project area of ​​Samurai enterprise has been absent from the investor's management, causing this place to become a garbage collection place, many individuals and households arbitrarily built houses, set up tents to sell goods day and night, gathered and sold construction materials encroaching on the traffic safety corridor, the entire project area polluted the environment, seriously affecting the environment and landscape of the commune to meet new rural standards. Nghi Thach Commune People's Committee contacted the project investor to come to work and established an inspection team, handled and made a record to suspend the violation of illegal construction. But the households used the excuse of having bought land from Samurai enterprise (with full sales documents) to deliberately not comply, and determined to oppose and not stop construction.

Because this is a land area belonging to the Samurai enterprise project, the project implementation has gone through many periods, the relevant officials have been transferred or retired, so the archived records at the commune are no longer complete, therefore, the Commune People's Committee does not have enough basis to strictly handle according to regulations. In order to strengthen land management in accordance with the provisions of the Land Law, ensure fairness and general stability in the area, ensure strictness according to the provisions of the law, Nghi Thach Commune People's Committee respectfully requests the District People's Committee to give instructions to help Nghi Thach Commune People's Committee handle violations at the land plot of Samurai enterprise...

At the end of June 2025, although the work of merging and streamlining the apparatus to implement a 2-level local government was very urgent, the responsible officials of Nghi Thach commune and Nghi Loc district took the time to talk with reporters of Nghe An Newspaper and Radio and Television. During the discussions, it was confirmed that Samurai Company's project had many problems, being an environmental "black spot" as reflected by the people and grassroots officials. And all of them hoped that the problems in Samurai Company's project would be reviewed and resolved by the competent authorities.

As discussed by Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hung - Chairman of Nghi Thach Commune People's Committee (now Standing Deputy Secretary of Dong Loc Commune Party Committee): "This is a project with many problems. It leads to waste of land, affects the aesthetics, creates consequences for people in the area and causes difficulties in management for local authorities. We hope that the competent authorities will consider and resolve it once and for all...".

Nhat Lan