Ife Development Board on Monday attributed the feud between Ife community and the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife to a pending land dispute between the community and the university since the emergence of the outgoing Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tope Ogunbodede.
The board in a statement by its president, Mr Lawrence Awowoyin, obtained in Osogbo by Nigerian Tribune, explained that “the Ife community relying on the decades of rapport between both parties had drawn the attention of the university to the existence of some controversial parcels of land over which the university was laying claims.
“On the basis of land title documents in the custody of our community, we had advised the university that their purported claims were invalid.
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“We, therefore, sought for dialogue with the university authorities, asking them to produce gazetted documentary evidence in their possession so that both parties could easily reconcile their conflicting claims. The university consistently refused to avail us of such documents in support of their claims.
“Rather than cooperate to resolve the issue in the spirit of the mutual collaboration established over decades, the administration of Prof Ogunbodede turned a simple dispute resolution process into an unbelievable war of attrition, alleging criminality against members of the community and willfully waging a media campaign that sought to malign and undermine our leaders in the eyes of the world thereby disrupting the peaceful and mutually respectful relationship of many decades.
“After our several attempts to engage in an amicable dispute resolution bore no fruits in view of the recalcitrance of the Ogunbodede administration, the Ife community did what the law prescribed by asking the university to go to court if the Ife community has truly encroached on the university land as alleged.”
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