Hearing imparied persons protest acquisition of land by Oyo govt

Several deaf and dumb persons in Nigeria, on Monday, staged a protest to Governor’s office, Ibadan, to decry the alleged acquisition of over 20 acres from 39 acres of their land on Lagos-Ibadan expressway by the Oyo State Government.

The deaf and dumb drove home their message with placards which had inscriptions such as, ‘We need more than 39 acres for the proposed university”, “Please, do not oppress the deaf”, “Do not resettle people on our land”, “We bought our land with donations from people”, “The deaf has rights to live better life”, “Oyo State Government should not forcefully occupy the deaf land”, “We need our land for vocational training and deaf university.”

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Led by National Chairman, Board of Trustees, Christian Mission for the Deaf, Mr Silas Ike, the protesters noted that action of the state government jeopardised the intent of the mission to use the 39 acres it purchased in 2004 to build a university for the deaf.

Ike added that the university intended to be the first of such in Africa would also offer an opportunity for vocational training for the deaf and dumb.

“We are here because we got the information that Oyo State Government wants to take over our land. The government wants to acquire the land we bought along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

“We bought this land in 2004, and the total we bought then was 39 acres. Our intention for acquiring this land is to transfer our nursery school, primary school, secondary school, technical school to the place.

“We also intend to build a university for the deaf on the land. The university we are thinking of building for the deaf is going to be the first of its kind in the whole of Africa.”

On efforts prior to Monday’s protest, Ike said, “Our discussion the Commissioner for Lands and Housing, Mr Isaac Omodewu, last Tuesday showed us that all the letters we have been writing did not reach him. He told us personally that he had not heard about our case.

“So, we told the Commissioner that the land the government has taken from our 39 acres is in excess of 20 acres. He said no it’s two acres. “Then, we brought out the aerial map of the land and showed the commissioner. We showed him the areas his people have marked to take, and they have started pegging the land.

“So, the commissioner said no, asking us for the amount of land we have there and he said it’s only two acres. We told him no.

“The commissioner said he had not heard about your case and asked us to write a memo for him to discuss with the governor. So, we agreed with him and we left, until today that members asked us to stage this protest to the governor himself.”

Oyo State Commissioner for Land and Housing, Mr Isaac Omodewu, who received the letter of protest, assured the mission of facilitating a meeting with Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

“The governor is outside the state but will let him know. I assure you that within the next one week, you will hear from us,” Omodewu said.