The Provost Federal College of Agriculture, Akure (FECA), Dr. Akinyemi Fadiyimu, has cried out over the continuous attack and harassment of students and staff of the institution allegedly by land grabbers.
Dr. Fadiyimu said three quarters of the institution’s land would be gone if the court ruled in favour of those that instituted legal actions against the institution as five different litigations have been filed by individuals, trying to lay claim to the college’s land.
He spoke in Akure when leaders of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Ondo chapter paid him a courtesy visit.
The FECA provost speaking in Akure, the Ondo state capital said the security risk faced by students due to attacks by land grabbers was causing distraction for the institution.
He noted that there was need to educate people that the institution required large mass of land to operate as strategically situated, to reduce food security shortage.
Besides attacks by land grabbers, Dr. Fadiyimu said the removal of Colleges of Education from benefitting from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has caused serious infrastructural deficit in the institution.
According to him, “Our greatest threat here is the issue of land grabbing. Land grabbers want to forcefully encroach on our land. We are facing five litigations from the people who are trying to lay claim to this college. On several fronts, different persons are laying claim to our land. The issues are so serious and affecting the growth of the institution.
“If per chance we should lose those cases, the land available to this college will be reduced by three quarters. Only one quarter will be left for us to operate, and this will not be enough to operate. They come in all the time to attack our staff and students. It is a lot of security risk for staff and students.
“The location of the college is attractive to land speculators. They should leave us alone to develop and be able to serve the society.”
