Its chairman, Zainudin Norhan, said this had resulted in the destruction of crops on Sept 27 last year, Bernama reported.

He said the cooperative, made up of small oil palm farmers, could no longer continue cultivating the land they had worked on for over a decade.

“There is a possibility of an under-the-table transaction related to the ownership of the land we were cultivating.

“Before the ‘invasion’ (of the land), a transaction of RM4 million was deposited into the cooperative’s account.

“This was said to be compensation provided by a third party (developer). Yet we, the board members and other members of the cooperative never agreed to any such arrangement.

“Therefore, we request that MACC investigate how this could have occurred,” he told reporters outside the Perak MACC office in Ipoh today.

Malaysian Humanitarian Organisation secretary-general Hishamuddin Hashim also called on MACC to investigate the matter, alleged to have occurred without any notice or court order.

“The land covering 1,052ha was granted to the Perak State Development Corporation (PKNP). There should have been a reasonable resolution between PKNP and the cooperative, but that did not happen.

“The cooperative, which involves 400 families, had also convened a meeting with PKNP, but no solution was reached.

“So how could it have been handed over to a third party?” he said.

Zainudin said the eviction and destruction of crops were allegedly based on “an agreement” signed by the previous leadership of the cooperative with the developer.

“The cooperative board members claim they never agreed to the eviction and there was no special meeting held to discuss this matter.

“However, the developer claims that an agreement was signed and compensation was paid to the cooperative.

“But the question we have now is who signed the agreement on behalf of the cooperative?”

He said the cooperative has been offered another piece of land  but they rejected it because the swampy land is unsuitable for oil palm cultivation.