We ‘Duly’ Acquired Our Land …Compensation Paid To Former Owners In 1974 …Why We Took Steps To Tackle Land Encroachment -Kwara Poly

 Kwara state Polytechnic, Ilorin, explained on Friday that the need to increase infrastructure projects at the institution as a result of growth and advancement necessitated the steps recently taken to halt the activities of land encroachers at the polytechnic.

The institution noted that it had become imperative to stop those putting up structures that intrude on its land from continuing to do so.

While warning those encroaching on its land to stop such forthwith, the polytechnic also asserted that ‘due process’ was followed with respect to acquisition of land for the institution in 1973.

The Kwara state Polytechnic, Ilorin, was established by the then Military Governor of Kwara state, Late General David Bamigboye in 1973.

The polytechnic made this clarification on Friday apparently in reaction to recent media reports.

Required compensation was according to the institution paid to a total of 122 families in 1974 while the amount of land allocated to the polytechnic when it came into being was 5,400 hectares.

This had consequently made relocation inevitable for inhabitants of about 49 villages and they had then been  asked  to relocate to the new places arranged for them while specific meters were still ceded to them from the original amount of land.

‘After ceding  300 meters to the villagers from the land, our amount of land  was reduced to 4,500 hectares’ the polytechnic noted on Friday.

Speaking during the press conference he presided over at the secretariat of the correspondents’ chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), in  Ilorin on Friday, which was attended by journalists including Team@orientactualmags.com  ,  the Director of Student Services, Kwara state Polytechnic, Ilorin, Surveyor Abubakar Garba Aremu,  lamented that encroachers have intruded on over 1,000 hectares of land.

He also lamented that the activities of the encroachers had somewhat hindered  accreditation  process of courses  like Agricultural Technology and Agricultural Engineering by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) .

The polytechnic has therefore called for ‘unity of effort’ to fight land encroachment at the institution while urging the state government to take steps towards constructing a perimeter fence that will make the boundaries easily ascertainable.

Abubakar also said the activities of some people who are not the original owners of the land in question have become a cause for concern while submitting that the institution has built and sustained good relationship with the villagers who are neighbors of the polytechnic .

The ‘ caretakers’ , he noted, have however continued to come up with litigations on matters they had no connection with.

He also described media reports that security agents monitored demolition of people’s houses and had a 135-year-old man traumatized at the instance of the management team of the polytechnic as untrue.

‘When the land was acquired, about a total of 49 villages were affected. The families were merged and asked to move to form a bigger village. Specific metres were  also allocated to them.

Unfortunately many of the villagers came back to the land and started farming  there again even after collecting the compensation.

However,  the caretakers are actually the problem now, some of them are threatening school authority without the consent of the rightful original family owners.

We will not be deterred by campaign of calumny or litigation by people that were already compensated.  The land belonging to Kwara poly extends to Oyun river Bridge, Oloru, Oke Ose, Dangiwa. So, anyone occupying those areas is occupying Kwara Polytecnic land.

We have some of the villagers as ad hoc staff and we also provide employment opportunities for them when available. We have  supplied them electricity from our 33KVA transformer, they get water from our Oke Apon dam while we also constructed boreholes for them. We also hold community peace meetings regularly’ he said.

The  polytechnic also  commended the Emir of Ilorin, His Eminence , Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari,  for his efforts to put the situation under control through the setting up of a mediation committee to resolve land disputes in Ilorin.

The establishment of the committee in question  is according to Abubakar already yielding results ‘as many of the villagers are withdrawing court cases against the Kwara polytechnic’ -Team@orientactualmags.com  Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com.  Thank you