Airport Project: Ekiti Farmers On Collision Course With Fayemi Over Non-Payment Of Compensation On Acquired Farmland

By; OLADELE ADEDAYO, Ado-Ekiti

Farmers in  five communities in Ekiti State on Monday staged protest and demanded for compensation on their farms acquired by the State government for the ongoing construction of the agro-allied cargo airport.

The farmers in their hundreds and mostly the aged and widows who came from Igbogun, Aso, Igbemo, Ijan and Orun Bolorunduro communities to the airport ground located along Ado-Ijan road pleaded with the state government, Dr Kayode Fayemi to consider their plights and investment on their farm lands and pay them compensation as promised by the government.

The farmers who carried placards with different inscriptions threatened to disrupt work on the airport site by invoking ancestral power if government failed to pay their compensation within the next seven days.Some of the inscriptions read, ‘ Ekiti Assembly Please come to our aids’ ; ‘Governor Fayemi should pay our money without delay ‘ ; ‘The farmers cry for help’ ; We need commission for our land acquired by govt’ among others.

While speaking on behalf of the aggrieved farmers, Mr. Osho Olorunfemi lamented that the over 1,000 farmers from the five affected communities whose land were acquired for the airport have lost huge amount of money in investment on the crops, calling on the governor to address their grievances without delay and pay them the  compensation.

Olorunfemi who said that failure of the government to effect the payment within the next seven days would left the farmers with no other option but to storm site and invoke spiritual power on the land, which he said could be disastrous.

According to him,” it is government that said people should embrace farming but here we are now after so much investment on cocoa, plantain, cassava, palm tree and other crops, government came to destroy them.

“Since March this year, we have been on this issue but nothing is forthcoming, all we hear is promise and assurance since them. We are tired of promise, we need our money to start life again because we are completely down at the moment. We are aware some persons have been paid but not all of us.

“We are giving the government a seven-day ultimatum for them to pay us and if they default we will be here on the airport site to do the needful and whatever happens after, we should not be blamed.”

Addressing the protesters,the coordinator of the airport project, Mr. Bunmi Awotikun advised the affected farmers to embrace peace, assuring them that government was attending to their demands and that they would soon be paid.

Awotikun who disclosed that about N500 million would be paid to some farmers across the communities in relation with their lands acquired for the airport project, pleading that they show more understanding with the government.

“I am not against your protest but let me assure you on behalf of the governor that nobody with a farm there ,that we won’t pay. Your money will be paid , I can assure you. I will present your case to the governor for appropriate action. You should remain calm and embrace peace in demanding for your rights,” he said.