Former proprietor of State Community High School, Akowonjo, now Community Grammar School Akowonjo, Alimosho, Lagos State, Ambassador Ade Oluwole Babalola, has reiterated his call to have the school, which was seized from him in 1979, returned.
The 68-year-old visually impaired administrator has sent a Save-My-Soul appeal to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu after several attempts to get the previous administrations of Bola Tinubu, Babatunde Fashola and Akinwunmi Ambode to effect his wish were fruitless.
Babalola said his school was taken over during the free education programme of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) by Governor Lateef Jakande in 1979.
According to him, “effort made for compensation by Alhaji Jakande was aborted by the Buhari coup of 1983. All efforts made since then with succeeding administrations have met a brick wall, especially when Asiwaju Bola Tinubu returned some schools to ex-proprietors during his administration. At the time, I was financially and medically unfit, suffering from glaucoma.”
On why he waited for so long to demand compensation, he said: “They told me they would communicate with me. Towards the end of 1983, I went to Jakande, he asked why I didn’t come for follow up. I told him they were the ones who told me that they would inform me when ready.
“As he was trying to set up a committee for the compensation, it was aborted due to a coup d’état in 1983. I went back to the governor’s office, I met a military man and I was told there is no access to the then military governor. Despite the series of letters written by me, there was no response.
“I want to use this medium to make a passionate appeal to the Lagos State government under the leadership of Babajide Sanwo-Olu to please come to my aid and bail me out of my predicament. I can’t see and I have family to feed.”
Follow our socials Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google News.
