SOME farmers whose farmlands were acquired for the ongoing cargo airport project in Ekiti State have protested against the failure of the state government to pay them compensation.
The farmers consisting of aged men and women staged the protest at the project site located along the Ado Afao road on Tuesday.
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Armed with various placards, the protesters lamented that feeding has been very difficult for them since the farmlands were taken from them.
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Omoremi Olarotimi, an Octogenarian, told journalists that several appeals to the government to pay them their entitlements have been unproductive.
He accused the government of taking advantage of their old age and poor status to cheat them of their entitlements.
”You can see we are all old and aged people here, we have been begging and appealing but it appears the government is levering on the fact that we are too weak to do anything. We are here today to appeal so we can be compensated just like our other colleagues,” he said.
However, in its reaction, the state government denied owing the protesters.
The Airport Project Coordinator Bunmi Awotiku noted that the John Kayode Fayemi-led administration had followed due process in ensuring that all legitimate persons were adequately compensated.
“We have paid over 700 million in terms of compensation. We even started a second phase but we had to stop it when some of them started impersonating, falsifying and re-enumerating the areas that have earlier been accounted for,” Awotiku said.
“These people who are now complaining attacked us with charms and we were even stoned at some point but we still appealed to them to allow the enumeration to be done.
“We have paid and we are not owing them, I have the records here. They came to the pavilion here to get the cheques and for the records, nobody was paid in cash.”
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