Multi-million naira research and training farms belonging to the University of Ilorin have been destroyed by herdsmen.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Sulyman
Abdulkareem, has decried the destruction of the University’s
multi-million naira research and training farms by herdsmen, who also
poisoned the dam with chemicals.
According to the University weekly Bulletin issued on Monday, the
management of the institution last Thursday held a security meeting with
the leaders of the 11 Fulani settlements on the University land.
The publication quoted the vice-chancellor as saying that economic
trees’ were destroyed by cattle grazing on the vast land of the
institution.
The meeting was attended by representatives of law enforcement
agencies comprising of the Nigerian Police Force, the Department of
State Security Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Security and Civil
Defence Corps (NSCDC).
At the meeting held at the institution’s Auditorium Basement, Prof.
Abdulkareem disclosed that the University management would no longer
tolerate illegal grazing of cows on its land.
He, therefore, told the illegal settlers, who have started building
permanent structures to vacate the University land in the interest of
peace.
According to him, this was coming almost a year after the
University authorities first issued a quit notice to the illegal
settlers.
Abdulkareem recalled that the University management had on April
26, 2017 handed down a seven-day ultimatum to the Fulani herdsmen
encroaching on the University land to quit the campus, but the quit
notice was never complied with.
The vice-chancellor also noted that on May 11, 2017, 28 persons,
comprising Fulani herdsmen, Yoruba and Hausa farmers, were dragged to an
Ilorin Chief Magistrate’s Court for allegedly trespassing into the
University land, destroying the school’s plantation and perpetrating
other unauthorized activities on the University campus.
He explained that the accused persons were alleged to have resorted
to poisoning the institution’s dam with chemicals, while also engaging
in illegal felling of economic trees from which they made charcoal.
However, at last Thursday’s meeting, the Vice-Chancellor clearly told the Fulani settlers that “enough is enough”.
The VC warned that the University could no longer condone the
destructive activities of their grazing cattle on the University land,
as this is becoming too costly for the institution to bear.
According to the institution’s publication, herdsmen from 11 communities took turns to speak at the meeting.
The Chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association,
Usman Adamu, told the University management that the herdsmen destroying
the University farm land were not living in the community.
He said that there were other ethnic groups embarking on illegal activities like logging, and were not Fulani.
-NAN
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