Members of staff and students of the Federal College of Agriculture (FECA), on Friday, protested over the illegal encroachment of the land of the school by land grabbers.
Armed with placards of various inscriptions, the protesters marched to the office of the Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police in charge of Zone 17, to register their displeasure over the incessant encroachment of land grabbers of the institution.
The protesters with the placards which read: Don’t send FECA into extinction, “Rescue FECA from land grabbers, “FECA land is not for sale”, “Federal Government should come to FECA’s aid, “Allow FECA to breathe”, among others, also took their protests to the traditional ruler of Akure, Oba Aladetoyinbo Ogunlusi.
The leaders of the protesters appealed to the AIG and the monarch to save the institution from the land grabbers, saying the activities of the land grabbers on the property of the school is becoming alarming.
Speaking, the Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of the College (ASUU), Mr Kayode Sule, said the activities of the land grabbers had been taking a toll on the training of students of the school, noting that all the areas being used for practical training had been taken over by the grabbers.
Sule, who called for the intervention of the Federal Government before the land grabbers take over the institution’s land, describing the activities of land grabbers as illegal.
He said, “What is going on is that we have had this problem of land grabbers coming from time to time to disturb us in the college.
“As we are speaking now, they are right inside the college, bulldozing lands, destroying economic trees, destroying those things that we use in the training of our students, all the economic trees, economic crops being bulldozed by land grabbers even as we speak now.
“What we are coming out to protest again is to tell the whole world, to tell government, every concerned citizen and stakeholders in the country that enough is enough that an end must be put to these incessant harassments by land grabbers.
“And some people in this community who believe that this land is for grabs and that it must be sold off and that this college must not exist.”
Sule disclosed that several cases are still pending in Court over the encroachment of School of Agriculture, Akure land, noting that the grabbers are becoming more daring.
According to him, a high-ranked security officer recently led some people to the land, destroying the institution’s fence while some security operatives were employed to monitor the activities of the workers.
He called on Akure sons and daughters, the government, Federal Government and Ondo State Government to help check the activities of the grabbers before sending the college into extinction.
“The land of Federal College of Agriculture is for Training of students and it’s not for sale,” he said.
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