Staff members and students of the Federal College of Agriculture Akure (FECA), Ondo State, on Friday, staged a peaceful protest against encroachment of the school land. 

The protesters, who converged at the college entrance gate, marched through the governor’s office in Akure and the office of the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), Zone 17, to the palace of the Deji of Akure. 

Peoples Gazette reports that the protesters also wielded placards bearing different inscriptions such as “FG should come to FECA’s aid,” “Allow FECA to breathe,” “FECA land is not for sale,” “Don’t send FECA into extinction,” and “Rescue FECA from land grabbers,” among others. 

Addressing journalists on behalf of the protestors, the chairman of the Academic Staff Union in the College, Kayode Sule, said the unwholesome activities of land grabbers were worrisome to the management. 

Mr Sule noted that the land grabbers, in collaboration with hoodlums, are now destroying the economic trees on the campus.

“As we are speaking now, they are right inside our college, bulldozing the land, destroying economic trees, destroying those things that we use in the training of our students,” he said. 

While noting that the college had reported several cases of land grabbing to appropriate authorities, Mr Sule said there was an urgent need for the college staff and students to raise the alarm before the institution goes into extinction. 

He urged President Bola Tinubu-led government and the Akure community to defend the college land for future opportunities and expansion. 

“There is a particular surveyor identified as Stephen Adebayo who is right there on the premises of the college with his hoodlums destroying tree crops. 

“Honestly, an end must be put to these incessant harassments by land grabbers and by some people in this community who believe that this land is for grabs and that it must be sold off and that this college does not exist,” Mr Sule stated. 

The Gazette could not immediately get a reaction from Mr Adebayo, the surveyor, accused of the encroachment. 

The protesters later dropped a protest letter at the palace of the Deji, Oba Aladelusi Ogunlade Aladetoyinbo, which was received by his secretary.