…as public Complaints Commission promises to wade in
Some owners of farmland affected by the Ekiti State Airport Cargo have protested to the office of the Public Complaints Commission in Ado Ekiti over the failure of the government to pay them compensation on the land and their produce destroyed during the construction.
The protesters who came from Afao, Igbemo, Aso, Araromi Obo, Orun, Ijan, Bolorunduroi and Ayegunle besiged the office and sang protest songs to express their displeasure over the untold hardship they were subjected to by the State government.
One of the farmers, Chief Awe Ojo from Igbemo said that government promised to pay them after clearing their farmland for the construction of the cargo Airport since thirteen years ago but reversed was the case.
Another farmer, Elder Olorunfemi Oso from Ayegunle Ekiti explained that ninety percent of them collected loan from financial institutions to cultivate the land before it was cleared by state government, saying the truma had sent many of them to early grave.
Elder Oso alleged that some people were paid token while major farmers who have cash crops were neglected since then and called on Governor Biodun Oyebanji to intervene in the matter.
According to the farmers, we find it difficult to feed our family and send our children to schools, since our source of income had been destroyed without compensation from the government.
Reacting, the Federal Commissioner, Public Complaints Commission, Ekiti State, Mr Olukayode Bamisile told the protesting farmers that the commission would do everything possible to ensure they were compensated.
Mr Bamisile also used the opportunity to called on the state government to be transparent with the palliative and money given to them by the federal government as exemplified by President Bola Tinubu.