Tension was high Wednesday when members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, together with some management staff accosted the Director General of the Kaduna State Urban Planning and Development Agency (KASUPDA), Malam Islamil Dikko.
The encounter took place at the site of a contentious land covering 196.258 hectares, which the university said belonged to its College of Agriculture and Animal Science, in Mando, Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
When the delegation from ABU led by the Chief Security Officer, Malam Ashiru Zango, arrived at the site yesterday, they met officials of KASUPDA while the agency boss was also on ground to supervise.
It was gathered that a management staff of the university tried to film the encounter when Dikko’s orderly, Kabiru Ismail, tried to stop him on the instruction of his boss.
This led to an altercation between Dikko’s orderly and that of ABU’s CSO. The intervention of some Mopol attached to the delegation from ABU however calmed the situation.
Dikko was said to have vacated the area while the delegation from ABU chased out the remaining staff who were extracting laterites with their equipment.
Attempts to reach the KASUPDA’s DG were not successful as his number was switched off while the agency’s Public Relations Officer, Nuhu Garba, did not answer several calls placed to him.
However, the Director, Public Affairs, Directorate of ABU, Auwalu Umar, said the team was on an enforcement exercise in line with a court order restraining the state government from trespassing on the land.
He said a warning letter had been served on KASUPDA in February to desist from further trespass or destruction of the land but the agency had ignored it.
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