Students of the Christian Mission School for the Deaf, Ibadan, Oyo State, on Friday, urged Governor Seyi Makinde to intervene and halt an alleged plan to sell their 39-acre school land to political officeholders and private individuals.

The students, who staged a peaceful protest, carried placards with inscriptions such as ‘The deaf has the right to live’, ‘Please, do not snatch our land’, ‘Don’t punch the deaf in the face’, ‘Do not oppress the deaf’, and ‘Help the helpless’.

Speaking on behalf of the school’s management, Dr. Gbenga Idowu, a member of the advisory board, said the land, located along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, was legally acquired by the school in 2005. He lamented that the Oyo State government allegedly acquired the land in 2018 without prior notice despite its official documentation with the relevant authorities.

“We bought the land in 2005. The encroachment began in 2018 when the state government claimed acquisition without any prior notification, even though we had duly registered the property.

“We are helpless and unhappy. We have only 39 acres, which we painstakingly acquired to build Africa’s first university for the deaf. In a more just society, the government would support this vision. If they won’t help us, they should at least let us keep what we have,” Idowu said. He expressed concern over reports that a senator was among those trying to take over the land.

“Why must it be the land of defenceless children with disabilities? There is land everywhere. Why target ours?” he asked. Idowu appealed to Makinde to “protect these children and help keep the vision alive.”

He explained that the mission of the Christian Mission School for the Deaf has always been to uplift and empower hearing-impaired individuals and prevent them from ending up as street beggars or social outcasts.

The visibly distressed students, though unable to speak, communicated their pleas through sign language. They begged the governor to act with the compassion of a father by calling the lawmaker to reconsider his actions.The school maintained that it possesses all legal documentation proving ownership of the land.