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Landlords and inhabitants of the Oluwa Palace neighborhood in Lagos State’s Ibeju Lekki Local Government Area have accused hoodlums and police officers from the state’s environment and special offenses enforcement unit of tearing down their homes and leaving them homeless.
According to reports, the police and hoodlums raided the neighborhood with bulldozers and demolished around 50 buildings, including homes, businesses, and other property worth millions of naira.
While bemoaning the invasion, the locals said that they had not received a notice of the destruction and added that those who lost their property had been traumatized by the change.
Olawale Yusuf, a resident of the neighborhood, claimed that his uncle’s property was included in the building that was torn down and that more than N300 million had been spent on it.
“The property has 72 rooms, and my uncle owns it,” he stated. On it, we have invested about N300m. We still have some possessions inside, but we were unable to remove them during the demolition.
“After the demolition, we were unable to remove the property. My uncle is currently not doing well. Before constructing on this land, we performed our due diligence.
Monday Ajanubor, the owner of the property, claimed that he was ill when the demolition procedure took place and that he was preparing to move into his new home at the time.
He explained, “I was doing everything I could to make sure that I moved into my new house on this land because my rent was going to expire. To organize the house, I sold my cars. They have since contacted to inform me that the house I invested all of my life savings in has been destroyed.
Nurudeen Oluwa, the community’s leader, said that his family had received an order of possession from the court as a result of a legal dispute with the state government over the land.
When the state moved to seize the land in 2009, we sued it in court, he continued. At the time, we were aware that the only option for legally opposing the government was to file a lawsuit.
“The court ruled in our favor in 2018, and the decision was recorded in Alausa. They provided us with a certificate of warrant of possession before we walked into the land. Before the Thursday invasion, family members had already erected their homes where we currently reside.
Ademola Olowoyeye, the family’s attorney, claimed that Bode Agoro, the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Lands Bureau, had thwarted the family’s attempts to take advantage of the court ruling.
Agoro instructed the ministry of physical planning to refuse to register any building licenses, including those for the construction of fences, he claimed. The LASBCA office has a number of applications laying around that they have refused to handle.
“We sent a letter to the state’s attorney general to request that the ruling be properly followed. He established a committee and elected Bode Agoro to serve as its head. Agoro never once showed bias against the Oluwa family during the sessions we had with him, starting on the first day.
“He stated he would offer the family 58 hectares out of 300 hectares when we asked him what he wanted, and we felt it was unfair. Because of his attitude, my client felt we should sue him and the Attorney General. Our last meeting was in November of last year.
The court’s decision from January 15, 2018, was made available to our correspondent in a copy.
When reached, Gbenga Omotosho, the state’s commissioner for information, responded, “I am not aware of the occurrence. I’ll check into it and get back to you if you can obtain me the court order.
When contacted, the taskforce’s spokeswoman, Gbadeyan Abdulraheem, stated that the demonstrators’ assertions were inaccurate.
He declared, “We weren’t at Abijo to demolish homes; we were there to provide the land grabbing commission with executive support. Our press release included information like this.
Vincent Paul
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