Free Trade Zone: IPOIDU Calls for Fair Treatment of Landowners
By Exponent, 25th October, 2026
The Indigenous People of Ilaje Development Union (IPOIDU) has called for fair treatment for all landowners who would submit their family land for the proposed free trade zone coming to Ilaje land. The call came during the union’s weekly meeting for this month, when the leadership of the union resolved that the group had concluded plans to defend the rights of the landowners in case the government and other investors failed to give them fair treatment for the land submitted for the establishment of the proposed Dangote Free Trade Industrial Hubs.
Speaking, the Rev. Nicodemus Odolo, while briefing the Congress, said the union used the forum to appeal to all the sons and daughters of the communities that would be affected by the project to submit all their approved survey plans to IPOIDU for proposal defence, as the union was fully ready to assemble all the legal practitioners within its capacity to defend the rights of their people to fair treatment before the government, the investors, and the project owners.
Similarly, the union also sounded a strong warning to its people against giving away all their land to investors, as it was important to reserve some of such land properties for posterity. Meanwhile, it alleged that the Olokola Free Trade Zone, which initially got ten (10) hectares of land, had now expanded to Ten thousand and twenty-nine thousand (29) hectares. A claim that was not going down well with them, if the claim was actually true. That was why they were calling on the communities concerned to be more cautious in this regard so that the government and investors would not acquire all the land belonging to the Ilaje communities in the name of industrial hubs.
The whole house also deliberated on the issue of the coastal road, which was allegedly claimed to have been diverted from the original master plan. The union called for the reversal of the plan to the original master plan so that the people living along the coastal ocean could benefit from this national project, as the project, if completed, would open up all the communities along this line to the economic world and, therefore, benefit their neighbouring states within their environments.
In another development, the union, while commending the Federal Government and the state government for the establishment of the deep-sea port at the Araromi seaside in Ilaje, used the medium to urge the state government to liaise with the Federal Government in ensuring that the proposed University of Maritime Transport and Logistics received Federal Government backing due to the financial muscle required to establish the university. However, as it stands, findings show that the proposed University of Maritime Transport and Logistics at Ugbonla, Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State, is a state government initiative, not a federal university. The official information reveals that it is linked to a state-owned university.
According to OSOPADEC’s official announcement of December 26, 2022, the institution was initially proposed as the School of Maritime Transport and Logistics, a satellite campus of the Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology (OAUSTECH), Okitipupa. OAUSTECH is owned by the Ondo State Government.
OSOPADEC, a commission established by the Ondo State Government, has been involved in funding and developing the facilities for the institution in Ugbonla. Its development is being pursued in collaboration with OAUSTECH.
The proposed upgrade to university status is expected in February 2027.
In an announcement published on October 22, 2026, OSOPADEC disclosed that Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa is expected to formally unveil the proposed University of Maritime Transport and Logistics in February 2027. The announcement indicates that the institution is still undergoing development towards the proposed upgrade. The union called on all individuals, particularly the youths and other interested Ilaje sons and daughters, to make themselves available for the learning of technical skills that would be required of them when the seaport finally comes into full operation, in order to guard against foreigners taking jobs meant for the indigenes due to their lack of the required technical skills and qualifications.
In conclusion, the union also appealed to the state government not to relent in continuing to fund the ongoing Aboto–Atijere road project for the purpose of completing it to the commissioning stage in December 2026, as targeted by OSOPADEC. The Indigenous People of Ilaje Development Union (IPOIDU) is an umbrella body of most Ilaje groups advocating for the development of Ilaje land to become an El Dorado.
