Deaf students battle Oyo govt over land seizure
Students of Andrew Foster Memorial College (AFMC) are up in arms against the Oyo State government for allegedly encroaching on a proposed landed property they claimed was acquired for their use.
The students took to the streets last Thursday to protest their grouse.
AFMC, an integrated educational institutional for the hearing-impaired, was established and sited in Jericho, Ibadan, in 1960 by the pioneer of deaf education in Africa, Dr Andrew Foster, reportedly in appreciation of the tremendous support he enjoyed from the government of the then Western Region, led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
Since the school’s inception, hearing-challenged students from the 36 states of the federation have been flooding it, necessitating moves by the school’s management to acquire a vast portion of land to accommodate a primary school, a secondary school, a vocational centre and a university for the deaf students all on the same campus.
Worried over the students’ plight, some of the school’s financiers were said to have purchased 35 acres of land for the construction of befitting and spacious structures at Ajala village, along the LagosIbadan expressway.
But the management of the school, which now has over 150 students, alleged that the Oyo State government had told the school that the land was not free from acquisition and wanted to relocate some displaced persons on the the land.
The Supervisor, Christian Mission for the Deaf (CMD), Mr Peter Obadare, who spoke with our correspondent, fumed that the state government, rather than support deaf students, had resolved to compound their challenges.
Obadare said, “We purchased the land during the regime of a former governor, Rashidi Ladoja, but recently the Oyo State government began encroaching on it. When we approached some government officials, they told us the land is not free from acquisition. When we discovered the matter was getting out of hand, we protested to the office of the state governor last July.
“Last year, when we noticed some moves by the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Survey to take over a sizeable portion of the land from us, we wrote series of letters to them as regards the issue, but there was no response from the government.
“So we decided to take the protest to the office of the state governor, but, unfortunately, he was not around. The Commissioner for Lands, Housing and Survey Ajiboye Omodewu, attended to us.
“Omodewu promised he would act on the matter and take our grievances to the governor because we made him to understand we have 39 acres on the land and intend to do something on it as soon as possible.
“We also told him that our current site is no more conducive for our activities because our students are increasing in number each day. Our vocational centre is in comatose because of space and we need to improve upon this. We acquired the land with the support of our donors.
“After explaining all these challenges to him, he promised to get back to us in two weeks. But we didn’t hear from him. Recently, we heard on the radio that the Commissioner, at a press conference, said the land was seized by the previous administration but had been released to us without government giving us any document.
“We expected the state government to invite us and hand over the land’s documents to us so that the succeeding government won’t disturb us again. We were on the verge of getting the documents when we noticed that the government had commenced work on the site.
“We approached Omodewu again and he told us that some villagers, who were driven out of the village where the Oyo State Technical University was sited, were to be resettled on our land. Shortly after that, the state government sent us a letter, which was full of inconsistencies. We replied the letter that we didn’t understand its contents and suggested we schedule a meeting to iron out the issue. But before we knew it, they have started work on the land again. That was why we embarked on a peaceful protest to inform the governor and the entire people of the state what we are going through.”
The Head Boy, AFMC, Shuiab Suleiman, who spoke in sign language through an interpreter, said the current facility of the school can no longer cater for its growing population of deaf students.
Suleiman said, “I want to beg the Oyo State government to please give us our land back to build a university for the deaf.”
Also, the school’s principal, Johnson Olalekan, lamented that the deaf students’ dream of having their own university would be shattered if the state government refused to vacate the land, and hand it over to the AFMC.
“The main reason for acquiring this land was for education purpose. Our temporary site is small. In fact, a female student was almost suffocated recently before we rushed her to the UCH two days ago.
“We want to extend our secondary school and also have our own university on the same campus. You will agree with me that it is a serious issue for the deaf students to cope in a conventional university because there are no interpreters for them there. We are appealing to the Oyo State government not to shatter their dreams,” Olalekan said.
The Technical Supervisor, CMD, Solomon Fasanya, maintained that the mission legally acquired the land.
The Special Adviser to the governor on Communication and Strategy, Mr Bolaji Tunji, in a telephone interview, said Governor Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi had instructed the ministry to open discussions with the AFMC management, adding it was surprising that the school didn’t go through the process again.