Dr Tola Winjobi the Global President of Osogbo Grammar School, Alumni Association Home and Abroad, has implored Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State to probe the circumstances surrounding the verdict allegedly secured by one Lekan Salami of Igbaemu family Osogbo against the government ceding a large portion of the school’s land to individuals converting the land to commercial purposes.
He carpeted the non-responsive attitude of Osun State government to whom several letters have been written without a response.
Winjobi made the call recently at a multi-level stakeholders’ strategy meeting involving the Elders’ Consultative Forum and Board of Governors of Osogbo Grammar School to discuss the strategy for re-claimming the encroached land from the land grabbers.
The event which featured some illustrious old students of the school including the pioneer National President of the association Professor Michael Ologunde, Elder Tunde Durotoye, High Chief Gbadebo Adeyemo, Surveyor Johnson Koledowo, Engineer Felix Ayoola and others.
He decried the attitude of government’s silence on the matter suggesting the complicity of the government on the dastardly act of plundering the land and other resources of the oldest school n Osun Division founded in 1950.
He said: “Our Imole Governor Nurudeen Jakson Ademola Adeleke to come to our aid. Let him give an executive order to reverse this ambush judgement against his government because it is disheartening and ludicrous that a government could be testifying against itself. Let a panel be set up to review the circumstances surrounding such a clandestine judgement while those found culpable should be brought to book”.
He explained that the encroachment into Osogbo Grammar School land started as mere farming activities by some peasant farmers few years ago but in 2018 “we noticed the surreptitious encroachment in which some individuals were mapping out our land for commercial purposes which led to taking the matter to court”.
He narrated how the school land encroachment had exhibited a new dimension to the extent that the land speculators were first erecting beacons and pillars close to the laboratory block, and then later laying the foundations of their illegal buildings very close to old principal’s lodge.
He added that the most astounding was the fact that few days before stationing some bulldozers around, the usurpers were brazenly removing the roofs of the former girls’ hostel and threatening to pull down all the structures within the school premises.
Dr Tola Winjobi alleged that a faction of “Gbaemu family in Osogbo led by one Lekan Salami “has been the brain behind cutting our land into plots and selling them to unsuspecting buyers some of who had reported us to the police when we had erected a fence blocking the caterwaul interlopers away from reaching our school”.
He also alleged that some civil servants,who are still in the employ of Osun Ministry of Justice, were involved in the act.
This, he said, explains his callfor judicial enquiry into the circumstances behind the judgement because Old Students which were supposed to be a party to the case were edged out.
He implored the retired justices in Osogbo, Egbe Alatunse of All Saints Cathedral Balogun Agoro, Osogbo Progressive Union and Osogbo Action Group to rise to the occasion and save the pride of Osun State (OGS) from extinction in the hands of land marauders as the school belongs to them too.
Winjobi warned some alumni members leaking information about the group’s strategy to desist from the act.
Also speaking, the pioneer National President of the Association, the Convener of Elders’ Consultative Forum Elder Tunde Durotoye and High Chief Gbadebo Adeyemo wondered how the land speculators are not encroaching on land at St Charles’ Grammar School, Akinorun Grammar School, Okuku Grammar School, Timi Agbale Grammar School etc which are younger than OGS.
They also appeal to Kabiyesi Ataoja to use his royal strength to ward off land grabbers from the vicinity of the school.