Sixty-five years after the Sapele Technical College was founded, the Agbuja Aberenabe family of Okirighwre-Amukpe in Sapele Local Government Area of Delta State has appealed to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to return a large portion of the land allegedly acquired illegally to them.
Part of the college is currently located on the family land.
In an Save-Our-Soul letter to the state government, the family, represented by Mr. Segun Agbuja, said, “Only 1.5klm square portion of our farm land, made up of rubber plantation, was required in the Lieutenant-Governor of Western region’s published notice No. 1654, on page 1378 of the Nigeria Gazette No. 65 of 18/12/1952, for maintenance and establishment of a trade centre, and contained in the matter of Public Land Acquisition Ordinance chapter 185, dated 31/10/1952.
“On 1/4/1955, all the parties concerned attended the hearing of the application by the government of the Western Region, sequel to that notice, in the then Supreme Court in Warri, wherein a grant of Certificate of Title for 1.5klm square of that land was granted to government for the purpose of a Trade Centre.
“We are surprised that government has been, particularly during the recent perimeter fencing of the trade center, now Sapele Technical College, STC, encroaching beyond the 1.5klm square we willingly and freely conceded to it, into adjoining portions. These portions are not parts of the area contained in government’s Certificate of Title granted by the then Supreme Court, Warri.”
