Leave us out of eviction order, 200-yr-old community urges Oyo govt.

NAN-H-27
Eviction
By David Adeoye
Ibadan, April 14, 2017  (NAN) Residents of  Aba Paanu  in Oluyole Local Government Area of Oyo State on Friday  made a passionate appeal to  the state government to stop  the plan to  evict them from their ancestral land.

The plea followed a  contravention notice  issued to them by  the State Physical Planning and Urban Development  Board on March 14.

Rising from a crucial meeting at Aba Paanu, members of the  community resolved to plead with the state government to leave out the community out of the several hectares of land  acquired .

Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)  at Aba Paanu, the village head, Chief Ayoade Oyekan, said the village was the ancestral home of Oyekan descendants  and dated  back to about 200 years.

He said the eviction would deny  them and their offsprings  opportunity to lay claim to their origin.

“ Apart from this, it will cause great hardship to get another place to relocate to because of cost of buying land  while  building houses elsewhere will be tough.

“Also, are we going to leave the graves of our ancestors here to be demolished? Such action means that our origin would cease  to exist,’’ he said.

Another indigene, Prof. Peter Oyekan, said the villagers had agreed to allow government take over the communal  land since government was ready to pay compensation on the  properties there..

He, however, said that the villagers were not in support of government action in respect of evicting them from their ancestral home, saying they were not sure of what the future holds.

“They have lived their entire life in the village and have nowhere else to go, so government should reconsider its decision,’’ he said.

He disclosed that a letter of appeal had been written to Gov. Abiola  Ajimobi through the State Commissioner for Lands, Housing, Urban and Regional Planning, Mr Ajiboye Omodewu.

NAN learnt that the commissioner and  some top management staff  of the ministry had on April 10 held a meeting with the representatives  of the village.

It was disclosed at the meeting that Oyo State Government had acquired about five kilometres  of the stretch on both sides of the Ibadan-Lagos expressway, some metres  from Guru Maharaji Village to the Ogun border.

Government, it was learnt, had also  agreed to pay compensation after the enumeration of properties on the acquired land.

Aba Paanu, some 10 minutes drive from Ibadan, was one of the communities affected by a  2005 eviction order said to have been issued  during the administration of  Chief Rashidi  Ladoja.  (NAN)
DAK/FF/OJO
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(Edited by Fela Fashoro/Mufutau Ojo)