Staff, students of Ondo college protest encroachment by ‘land grabbers’

The staff and students of the Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, (FECA) are protesting over an alleged encroachment of the land belonging to the institution by land grabbers.

The protest took them from the FECA gate to the office of the assistant inspector general of police (AIG) at zone 17.

They also marched to the governor’s office and the palace of Aladetoyinbo Aladelusi Odundun II, the Deji of Akure.

The protesters carried inscriptions such as “Don’t send FECA into extinction” and “Rescue FECA from land grabbers”.

Other inscriptions are “FECA land is not for sale” and “Federal Government should come to FECA’s aid”.

Addressing journalists on Friday, Kayode Sule, the chairman of the Academic Staff Union of the College (ASUU) at the institution, said the activities of the land grabbers were affecting the training of students.

“What is going on is that we have had this problem of land grabbers coming from time to time to disturb us in the college,” he said.

“As we are speaking now, they are right inside the college, bulldozing lands, destroying economic trees, destroying those things that we use in the training of our students. All the economic trees and crops are being bulldozed.

“What we are coming out to protest again is to tell the whole world, to tell the government, every concerned citizen and stakeholders in the country that enough is enough that an end must be put to these incessant harassments.”

Sule said there were several cases in court with several groups of land grabbers.

He said there was a particular man who came with security and started destroying our fences with the help of security men on Thursday.

The ASUU chairman called on the federal government, Ondo state government, and other stakeholders to intervene and help the college from going into extinction by land grabbers.

“The land of Federal College of Agriculture is for the training of students and it’s not for sale,” Sule added.