The Kwara state government says it has compensated a total of 122 families who owned the land the state Polytechnic was built on in 1973.
The Director of Students Services, Surveyor Abubakar Garba Aremu, disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Ilorin.
He was accompanied by some other members of the school management.
The explanation came on the heels of the recent tension generated between the management and the villagers over the issue.
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According to Aremu, the “original 122 families were adequately compensated as at July 6, 1974 before they were asked to move out of the land.
The institution’s director of Student’s Services also said that over 1,000 hectares of land had been encroached upon out of a total land space of 4,500 hectares of the school.
Surveyor Aremu said that construction of development projects and infrastructures had been denied by the effects of the encroachment activities of the villagers.
He added that threats, intimidation and litigation by the villagers had served as a stumbling block against the plan of the school to establish a school of Agriculture and accreditation of relevant courses.
The official noted 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 Bamigboye.
“When we ceded part of the land by 300 meters to the villagers, the institution’s land was reduced to 4,500 hectares”.
“Unfortunately many of the villagers refused to move out of the land even after collecting the compensation.
“However, caretakers of the land are actually the problem now. Some of the people relocated came back to farm there”, he said.
Aremu added that the “school will not be deterred by campaign of calumny or litigation by people already compensated.
“It’s the responsibility of the Kwara State government to sustain the property to serve the educational purpose it was established. We as caretaker of the land, it is our responsibility to see that it’s not encroached upon.”
The Kwara Poly management thanked the efforts of the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, for setting up a mediation committee to resolve land disputes in Ilorin.
He said the establishment of the committee was already yielding results “as many of the villagers are withdrawing court cases against the school management”.
