The management of the Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin (KwaraPoly) has raised an alarm over encroachment of its land by suspected land grabbers in the state.
On the sideline of the institution’s 28th convocation ceremony, the Rector, Engineer Abdul Jimoh Mohammed told the media that 41 percent of its land areas had been encroached upon.
“The Polytechnic is currently occupying six percent of its land mass. Forty-one percent of the entire land mass has been encroached in such a way that it enveloped the six percent.
“The remaining 53 percent is not accessible because the Polytechnic will have to pass through the encroached portion before it can access the virgin land”, he said.
To check the development, the Rector said that the management had commenced siting some projects on some encroachment prone areas and virgin land areas of the polytechnic.
Mohammed said that the institution is also collaborating with the state’s Ministry of Tertiary Education and the government, who, he said, had already set up committee on encroachment of lands belonging to the state-owned schools in the state.
He also said that the institution had signed Memorandum of Understanding with three indigenous industrial organisations in its collaboration to encourage students’ practical skills.
These are Prototype Engineering Development Institute, Ilesha, Osun State; Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi; and Mantrac CAT, Ikeja, both in Lagos State.
He said that the aim was to make graduates relevant professionally in the knowledge of heavy duty equipment, marine, agriculture and mining industries, and turn them into employers of labour.
The Rector also said that eight staff of the institution were sacked over certificate racketeering, adding that some of them presented fake certificates and results for employment, “just as some were demoted over one offence or the other”.
He also said that the institution currently offers 56 programmes, including four new ones – Nutrition Science; Library Science; Mechatronics; and Food Science and Technology.
For the 28th convocation ceremony, 62 students bagged distinction at the Higher National Diploma level, while 56 students had distinction at the Ordinary National Diploma level.
