Airport: Ogun landowners protest, demand compensation

Members of Orubo family in Iperu-Remo, Ogun State, owners of the land being developed by the state government for the Agro Cargo Airport, in the state have protested against the non-payment of their compensation by the government in line with the Land Use Act.

The protesters, comprising elderly men and women, besieged Governor Dapo Abiodun’s Iperu residence on Friday evening, and later marched to the disputed land, displaying placards with various inscriptions.

The inscriptions on their placards read ‘Governor Abiodun, please come to our rescue,’ ‘Our Land Is All We Have Left,’ ‘Our Support for Government Should Not be a Curse to Us,’ and ‘Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Respect Court Judgement,’ among others.

Leading about 100 family members in a peaceful protest to the governor’s house in Iperu on Friday evening, the head of the family, Iperu Remo, Waidi Alaka, said they were not against acquiring their land for the airport, but that they deserved to be compensated.

Alaka explained that they inherited the land from their forefathers and were looking forward to passing it down to their children before the government acquired it for the airport.

The land in dispute, which is a large expanse of farmland along Iperu-Ilishan Road, Ogun State, measures approximately 136.070 hectares (336.2 acres) including 9.674 hectares (23.90 acres).

The family claimed to have secured a judgment from the Ogun State High Court, which they said declared them the rightful owners of the land.

Speaking at the airport site, Alaka alleged that there was an ongoing illegal clearance, with construction equipment and erection of survey pillars on their family land for the cargo airport by the state’s Surveyor General. Punch