From Shola Baraye, Ilorin
There is a strong indication that land grabbers who before now have been feeding fat on Kwara State Polytechnic land might not be allow to carry out such activities going by what is currently happening on the issue.
Indication to this emerged during the meeting organised by the Kwara State Polytechnic Alumni Association, Wordwide, with the stakeholders, including relevant NGOs in Ilorin.
Participants at the stakeholders meeting asked every property owners or private developers on the institution’s land to get in touch with the Kwara State Geographic Information System (KGIS) to ascertain status of their properties.
The stakeholders’ meeting,held on the sidelines of the encroachment on the polytechnic land, was attended by management of the polytechnic, traditional institution, Kwara state Geographic Information System, Students Union Government (SUG), media executive and the host, the alumni association of the institution.
According to communique issued at the end of the stakeholders’ meeting and tour of the encroached land of the institution at Oke Aponle, Ara, Gatta, Boyi, Oke -Ose, Akuro, Rector’s Quarters, proposed Polytechnic Farm etc last weekend in llorin, the people said that the land was legally acquired and compensation paid to original land owners.
The communique, signed by the
Chairman, communique drafting committee, James Ogunlakin,
said that if the record of any property owner was not with the Kwara state GIS, it means they do not have any property on the land. called for peaceful resolutions of the matter, saying that peaceful approach to the matter could not be over- emphasized .
The communique also said that no part of the polytechnic land is for sale between the polytechnic land and Dangiwa community in Oke Ose area.
The communique also said that:
“All ongoing private construction works on the polytechnic land should be put to a stop henceforth”.
Earlier, at the stakeholders meeting on the Polytechnic land encroachment matter held at the Admiral Mohammed Alabi Lawal auditorium the protem president of the State Polytechnic Worldwide Alumni, Engineer Abu Salami, said that a look at the two different definitions of encroachment and land grabbing have showed that “the groups pitching tent against our
alma-mata ( the 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 authorizing 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 and we are ready to proof.
“We, the alumni and the students of this peace loving and 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 concern”.
Salami said the alumni association, noted with dismay that the land encroachment and grabbers is a problem which communities face all over the world as far as land matters are concern,
He 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, has not shown the political will to end the matter.
“Hence, part of the reason we are organizing this forum is to gear the three arms of government 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 the Polytechnic thereby allowing peace to reign within the Polytechnic environment.
