The Alumni Association of the Kwara State Polytechnic Worldwide, with other stakeholders of the State Government-owned institution, have asked every property owner or private developer on the institution’s land to contact the State Geographic Information Science (GIS) to ascertain status of their property.
The stakeholders’ meeting therefore called on the encroachment of the Polytechnic land, was attended by Management of the Polytechnic, Traditional institution, Kwara State Geographic Information Science, the Students Union Government (SUG), Media Executive and the host, the Alumni Association of the Institution.
According to the communique issued at the end of the Stakeholders’ meeting after the tour of the encroached land of the Institution at Oke Aponle, Ara, Gatta, Boyi, Oke Ose, Akuro, Rector’s Quarters, proposed Polytechnic Farm and so on, there was a resolution that the land was legally acquired and compensation paid to original land owners.
The communique, signed by James Ogunlakin, the Chairman, Drafting Committee, explained that if the record of any property owner was not with the Kwara State lGIS), it means they do not have any property on the land.
They also called for peaceful resolution of the matter, saying that peaceful approach to the matter could not be over emphasized.
The communique noted that no piece of the Polytechnic land is available for sale between the Polytechnic land and Dangiwa community in Oke Ose area.
The communique partly read, “All ongoing private construction works on the polytechnic land should be put to a stop henceforth”.
In his address at the stakeholders meeting on Kwara State Polytechnic land encroachment held at the Admiral Mohammed Alabi Lawal Auditorium, Kwara State Polytechnic, llorin, Abu Salami, the protem president of the Kwara State Polytechnic Worldwide Alumni, said that a look at the two different definitions of encroachment and land grabbing had shown that “the groups pitching tent against our
ALma-mata (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 and we are ready to proof.
“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 concern”.
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, added 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 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.
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