The Agunbiade family of Isale-Afon, Ogbomoso, has called on the Oyo State government to pay compensation for its land acquired for the establishment of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), alongside lands of other families.

In a statement signed by the family spokesman, Chief Adewole Adesina, the family explained that the old Oyo government took over the land around 1990, but no compensation has been paid to the affected families to date.

The family urged the Governor Seyi Makinde-led administration to revisit the matter, particularly in light of the compensation paid to the Osun State government, which co-owned the institution with Oyo until 2020.

According to the statement, the Agunbiade family’s land affected by the acquisition measures 400 acres.

The statement reads in part, “The Agunbiade family of Isale-Afon, Ogbomoso, is again appealing to the Oyo State Government to re-visit the issue of compensation to families who own the lands taken over for LAUTECH. For the Agunbiade family of Isale-Afon Ogbomoso, 400 acres of our land is affected. It is an ancestral land left to us by our forebears.”

The family noted that Osun state received compensation to the tune of N8billion over the dissolution of the joint-ownership, wondering why the families whose properties were taken over could not be compensated.

They submitted that the Agunbiade family had met all conditions put forward by the Oyo state Ministry of Lands including land surveying, a formal request and list of all items on the land claiming its 400 acre land is worth N2billion in value.

They therefore pleaded with the Oyo state’s helmsman, saying, “We are praying and pleading that Governor Seyi Makinde (GSM) pay us our dues. Some of our family members are dead since we re-energised our request for compensation. Government should not let their efforts be in vain.” (The Nation)