FOUYE : Family Tackles University Management Over Alleged Land Grabbing 

Sola POPOOLA
The  Oguntuase Family has accused the  Federal University, Oye-Ekiti(FUOYE) of encroaching on its land.
The spokesman  and secretary of the Oguntuase Family, Mr. Sunday Liberty Oguntuase claimed that the family had conceeded 37 hectares out of their property  to the federal university.
This is coming as the Vice Chancellor, Professor Abayomi Fasina  said all issues regarding land matters have been resolved stressing that the current claim might be a false alarm afterrall.
Speaking through,  Special Adviser on Media, Wole Balogun , the VC said “Oye Community and the university management have met and resolved issues relating to landed property of the University and the attacks by some members of Oye community and this means there is peace between the two parties. So whoever is now raising allegation of encroachment on their land by the university management may just be rasing false alarm”.
Balogun claimed that the “landed property was given to us by the federal government and if any one is alleging that we intrude on their landed property, such family should approach the appropriate authorities of government”.
“We have  also been having some members of Oye community disturbing construction works on going to develop the University and the University management has taken a civil step on this development”. he added.
With these notwithstanding  the aggrieved  family also alleged that about 98 percent of  the remaining six hectares left for the family has been acquired,  thereby creating tension and anxiety in the affected areas as well as the entire town due to large number of those involved.
“Apart from the 37 hectares, we have another 15 Hectares where our cocoa plantation is located but the school had to channel its major road through the land, thereby dividing the land with 9 hectares falling on the school side on Atirin land while it was concluded that the remaining 6 hectares is left for the Oguntuase Family”, he stated.
According toOguntuase, the remaining 6 hectares are already being encroached by the University despite that same school had earlier directed CAC Students Fellowship to reach Oguntuase Family for consent and negotiation over the land located at Agboro area of the town when the student body wanted to build worship center.
“Even when  NASU was to build its secretariat, the site in the affected area had to be relocated due to superior argument that the school couldn’t have allocated a property that doesn’t belong to it”,  Liberty argued.
“There have been occasions when the FUOYE management had allegedly initiated disruption of activities on  site, using security personnel to molest both genuine land buyers and their workers”, he said.
“All these are happening due to negative roles being played by the school surveyor, Mr. Anthony Oni who had been at crossroads with our family over another land issue, thereby instigating the forceful acquisition”, Oguntuase claimed.
“Our land was never, and is not on the chart of the school. It is same Surveyor Anthony Oni who was engaged by the Oye-Ekiti Community to work on the land being an indigene that is even causing the crisis on the land in question”.
Liberty added that “even at the initial stage when land was to be made available, three Community Chiefs removed their land from the collection but we as Oguntuase stood firm in ensuring that the town developed”.
“If there is any land that should be affected, it is the ones owner by Agbaje, Ulusi and Agbora families. It’s unfortunate that we that cooperated with the University are the only one bearing the brunt now”, the family spokesman lamented.
Going memory lane, the family spokesman emphasized that their father, late Bishop Michael Ilori Oguntuase had prophesied that project of such magnitude would be established in the town, hence their desire to give total support.
In his words, “when a site was allocated by government and the land owners were not cooperative, we had to voluntarily release the land for government and that was the first major step that facilitated the establishment of the federal university in the town”.
The family expressed concern that the community leadership had not taken any concrete step on an issue that could to breakdown of law and order, lamenting that all efforts to get the attention of the traditional authorities as well as other stakeholders had not yielded any positive results.
“We as a family are hereby calling for the Intervention of both Ekiti State government and Federal Government and other relevant security agencies into the brewing communal crisis”, Liberty added.
Similarly, the surveyor who handled the project who spoke on the condition of anonymity lamented that even if the land was to be acquired by the University, awareness could have been created.
“A boundary already existed between the hectares conceeded to the University and the other 6 hectares left for the family and it was also emphasized when NASU was to build a secretariat and had to be corrected and relocated to another site in the School’s land”, the surveyor said.
“It has therefore become a case of grabbing what doesn’t belong to the federal institution without considering the place of the original owners of the site”, he added.

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