There was tension in Akure on Tuesday as residents and farmers from five communities in Ondo East Local Government Area staged a protest over the alleged abduction of two traditional rulers and the unlawful seizure of their ancestral lands.
The aggrieved protesters, drawn from Italemikan, Abusoro, Ateru, Igbomowo, and Uloko Agbonden, converged on the Governor’s Office, displaying placards with messages such as “Free Our Obas Now,” “We Say No to Land Grabbing,” and “We Want Justice for Our Communities.”
They accused one Ojo Ajisafe of masterminding the land crisis, alleging that he had been using armed men and the police to harass residents and jail those who opposed his encroachment.
Spokesman for the protesters, Mr. Kokuma Isaac Akinwande, claimed that the Olu of Igba, Oba Shina Olayele, and the Olu of Uloko Agbonden, HRH Moses Awonusi Apalara, were framed and unjustly detained on Ajisafe’s orders.
“We are here because of Ojo Ajisafe. He is a notorious land grabber. He came to our land claiming his father owns everything from Ita Ila to Oboto — we have never seen him before,” Akinwande said.
Another protester, identified simply as Ajibola, said the communities had previously written petitions to the governor, the Chief Judge, and the Speaker of the State House of Assembly but received no response. “We don’t want violence or crisis in our land. That is why we came peacefully to seek government intervention,” he stated.
As at the time of filing this report, the state government had not issued any statement in response to the protest.
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