Kwara State Polytechnic has a long struggle with land encroachment by villagers in the surrounding community. BIOLA AZEEZ writes on the efforts by the management and stakeholders in the polytechnic to retrieve and preserve its lands.
On more than three separate occasions spanning more than three years, the rector of the Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, (Kwara Poly), Dr Abdul Jimoh Muhammed, has raised the alarm over encroachment of the polytechnic land by suspected land grabbers.
The alarm raised by the rector concerns the threat to security of lives of students, workers and property of the institution as a result of the land encroachment. The authorities of the school made an appeal to the state government to assist in stopping the menace posed by land grabbers.
“Entrance through the main gate of the polytechnic presents a worrisome sight with unauthorised structures emerging on both sides of the road. The presence of these illegal structures pose a great challenge to the security of the institution,” the rector noted.
“The management, though, appreciates the state government’s efforts, but we wish to appeal to the government to do more to stop the menace of selling the public properties.”
He said the polytechnic was investing a huge amount of money in partnering with various security agencies in the area to provide security as a result of the menace.
He, however, appealed to the government, the alumni association of the institution, and philanthropists to come to the aid of the institution by constructing a fence around the polytechnic campus as a measure to put a stop to the challenge.
Also speaking on the issue, the Director of Students Services of the polytechnic, Abubakar Garba Aremu, said that the state government has compensated a total number of 122 families from 49 villages that owned the land on which the polytechnic was established in 1973.
Aremu said that the 122 families were adequately compensated as at July 6, 1974, after which they were asked to move out of the polytechnic land.
The institution’s Director of Student’s Services also said that over 1,000 hectares of land had been encroached upon by some of the villagers out of a total land space of 4,500 hectares.
Aremu, who said that construction of development projects and infrastructures had been hampered by the effects of the encroachment activities, added that threats, intimidation and litigation by the villagers had served as stumbling block to the plan of the school to establish a School of Agriculture.
He also said that encroachment of the land by the villagers had denied the polytechnic of accreditation of courses such as Agricultural Technology and Agricultural Engineering by the Nation Board for Technical Education (NBTE), adding that “absence of adequate farm land space for the courses would be detrimental to the much-needed accreditation when the accreditation committee comes back to see that we don’t have the land ready.”
Aremu, who said that he had been involved in the management of the institution’s land since 2013, said that a total space of 5,400 hectares was acquired for the school in 1973 when it was established by the military administration of Colonel David Bamgboye.
“When we ceded part of the land by 300 metres to the villagers, the institution’s land was reduced to 4,500 hectares.”
The institution’s Director of Student’s Services said that amount of money paid to the original land owners varied according to the land space acquired by the state government.
“Unfortunately, many of the villagers refused to move out of the land even after collecting the compensation; a total of about 49 villages. The families were also merged and asked to move to form a bigger village. Specific metres were allocated to them.
“Rather, they stayed put where they were. However, caretakers of the land are actually the problem now. Some of the people came back to farm after they were relocated.
“Meanwhile, we will not be deterred by the campaign of calumny or litigation by people already compensated. Kwara Poly extends to Oyun River Bridge, Oloru, Oke Ose, Dangiwa. So, anyone occupying those areas are occupying Kwara Poly land.
“It’s the responsibility of Kwara government to sustain the property to serve the educational purpose it was established for. We, as caretakers of the land, take it as our responsibility to see that it’s not encroached upon.
“It should also be stated that Kwara State government didn’t take over the land but acquired the land for the benefit of general interest of the people for the establishment of Kwara Poly.
“We have some of the villagers as ad hoc staff and we also provide employment opportunities for them when available. We supplied them electricity from our 33KVA transformer. They get water from our Oke Apon dam, while we dug bore holes for them in some places. We also hold community peace meetings among them.”
The school management used the opportunity of the press interaction to commend efforts of the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, for setting up a mediation committee to resolve land disputes in Ilorin, saying that the establishment of the committee was already yielding results, “as many of the villagers are withdrawing court cases against the Kwara Poly.”
Recently, the stakeholders of the polytechnic led by members of the Kwara State Polytechnic Worldwide alumni association, took journalists to some parts of the encroached area.
The alumni advancement officer, Enoch Opaleke, who led journalists on the tour, said that some land areas of contention include Oke Aponle community. Opaleke said that the encroachment had eaten deep into school premises, adding that some illegal structures had been built near school’s security post situated on both left and right sides of the road leading into the school premises.
He said that houses had been built around the school dam, adding that another piece of land with beacons already erected on them had been sold by members of the local community to buyers, while other buildings at Gatta and Ara villages had been built and occupied by land encroachers as residential buildings.
Some of the buildings built on the encroached lands were also being used as hostel accommodation for prospective students. It was also gathered that some of the buildings built on the encroached lands were erected very close to the polytechnic staff quarters.
The tour also revealed that construction of institution’s rector’s lodge at Ara village was allegedly stopped by members of the community. The structure had now been overgrown with trees due to years of abandonment.
Also, a petrol filling station was already built and completed on the school land at Ara village.
In his address at the stakeholders meeting on the Kwara State Polytechnic land encroachment matter held at the Admiral Mohammed Alabi Lawal auditorium, Kwara State Polytechnic, llorin, the protem president of the Kwara State Polytechnic Worldwide Alumni, Abu Salami, said that a look at the two different definitions of encroachment and land grabbing have shown that “the groups pitching tent against our alma mater (Kwara State Polytechnic) has graduated from land encroachment to land grabbing.
“At this point, we are of the view that they are ready to use all means including threat, terrorism, sponsored court cases and blackmailing to snatch the land they do not own.
“At this point, we challenge any of the claimants to provide any document authorising the building of any of the structures on the land in dispute for which the Kwara State Government had already paid compensation to the original owners.
“We, the alumni and the students of this peace loving and prestigious citadel of learning who have been quiet and patiently watching the unfolding scenario between these bandits and our polytechnic management are now up to say enough is enough as far as this daylight robbery is concerned.”
The protem president of the alumni association, who said that the problem is part of that which communities face all over the world as far as land matters are concerned, however, said that, “in this case, the Kwara State Government, who is the legal owner of the school, and the Ilorin Emirate, who are the traditional aborigines and through whom the land was originally acquired, have not shown the political will to end the matter.
“Hence, part of the reason we are organising this forum is to gear the three arms of government in Kwara State through our current Executive Governor and the llorin community through the apex Ilorin Socio-Cultural and sociopolitical organization (llorin Emirates Descendants Progressive Union) to initiate the process of legally taken possession of its property and officially handing its ownership over to Kwara State Polytechnic thereby allowing peace to reign within the polytechnic environment.”
Read Also: Ethiopian opposition figure, Bate Urgessa, shot dead
