Ajia residents beg Makinde to intervene in proposed land acquisition

RESIDENTS of Ajia, in Inukan Local Council Development Area, Oyo State, have appealed to Governor Seyi Makinde to intervene in the proposed acquisition of lands in the town by the state government.

The appeal was made when those affected by the said acquisition took their grievance to a private radio station domiciled in Ibadan, the state capital, at the weekend.

One of the residents, Mr Anthony Agbaje Akangbe told the Nigerian Tribune that: “We are here this morning to protest the manner with which some representatives of the government are going about some lands in Ajia.

“We have built houses on the lands and have been living there for more than fifteen. Before we bought the land, we did due diligence by going to the Ministry of Lands and Housing to find out whether the lands are safe for us to build on and we were told they are not the government’s lands.

“We were shown the lands that are government-owned and one of them is the Ajia Secondary School land which is 44 acres and that of the Primary School which is three acres.

“In 2019, we gave our maximum support for Governor Seyi Makinde to emerge as governor as he is a son of the town. On the day of the governorship election, I was threatened with a gun, I was almost killed.

“Now that everything is ripe, we are now being told to take our buildings off the land. We are using this opportunity to appeal to governor Seyi Makinde to have mercy on us, the government should not tamper with our lands and houses.

“As a matter of fact, before I came here this morning, I have been to the hospital because I was not feeling fine, I was told that my blood pressure is on the high side. Some of us have died as a result of this problem because of the thought of losing our properties.

“The governor should please have mercy on us, there are other lands which can be used for series of developmental projects as intended by the government.”

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