Baba-Ode Ilogbo Residents Flee As Police Enforces Possession Order
OLORUNDARE ENIMOLA, Lagos
Residents of Itusi Baba-Ode in Ilogbo, Ogun State has cried out over the continous occupation and harassment of men of the Nigerian Police who are said to be evicting residents forcefully from their homes in the last two weeks, calling on the AIG Zone 2, Mohammed Ali Ari, to quickly intervene.Following complaints by residents, DAILY INDEPENDENT correspondent visited the isolated Community to find a team of fierce looking and fully armed Policemen numbering about 15 stationed at Ojuolale Area of Itusi Baba-Ode, Ilogbo, with street urchins found hanging around them who the fleeing residents claim are working for the police team to point those to be forcefully evicted and beaten mercilessly if they resisted.
Chief Taofeek Adisa Odunsayin, family head of acclaimed owners and occupiers of the land in Ilogbo, who spoke on behalf of the family and residents of the land, appealed to AIG Mohammed Ari, Zone 2 Area Commander to intervene and stop what they described as abuse of power and intimidation by notorious land grabbers, using men of his Command.
According to him, "About three weeks ago we saw men in Police camouflage fully Armed, invading our community in company of some identifiable street urchins working for a notorious land grabber with whom we have running legal battles for many years and have won in all court judgements, but have resolved to keep using men of the Nigerian Police to keep intimidating us, using men of Zone 2 this time around.
"We had written a strong petition to the AIG Zone on 5th of May, following an invasion on my house around 2am in a gestapo manner a day before, and was arrested without a warrant, handcuffed for hours and humiliated before the land land grabbers in collusion with the men of Zone 2 Police Command. Since the petition was written we were neither invited or heard if the other party were vilified for their illegal actions. To add insult upon injury they came in their number unleashing terror on hapless residents for over two weeks now." Odunsayin added.
Speaking further, Chief Odunsanyin said, "Our family members and innocent occupiers of the land are constantly hounded, illegally arrested, detained and trump up charges hung on our necks all in a bid to detain or scare us away from the land as men of the Zone 2 Command are doing now."
"Our family has obtained three judgment in our favour over the land as follows; the Ogun State Customary Court, Ota Grade 1, in year 2010 delivered a judgement in our favour by His Honour, Mrs. M.O. Oguntola.
"The opposing family appealed the judgment of the customary court and appealed to the High Court, before Justice Mobolaji A. Ojo, who upheld the earlier decision of the customary court that the land belongs to us.
"The third judgement on the land was also in our favour obtained from the judgement by Hon. Justice N.J. Agbelu affirming the land belongs to the Odunsanyin Family." Odunsanyin asserted.
"But in contempt of the court rulings the land grabbers kept attacking our family and the latest being the deployment of Policemen from the Zone 2 Command." Chief Odunsanyin said.
Following these allegations by Chief Taofeek Odunsanyin, DAILY INDEPENDENT, puts a call to SP Hauwa Idris Adamu, Zonal Public Relations Officer, who said she is not aware of the case, explaining that the Command would not send officers out for such operations except there is a Court order."
She later revealed that the Policemen were actually on the land to enforce an Appeal Court order from Ibadan which upturned an earlier Magistrate Court ruling in Ota, obtained in 2017 by the opposing family which ceeded obtained by the opposing family.
SP. Hauwa stressed that the the Party with the Appeal judgement approached Zone 2 Command to seek execution of the Court order through a petition, making it to send a team to enforce possesion.
In reaction to
Her response, Chief Odunsanyin said the judgement was for Iju Land via Ota and not Itusi Baba-Ode in Ilogbo, which the Court statement sent by the Zone 2 PRO did specify.
To further clarify, Daily Independent contacted the lawyer of the family to ascertain if the Policemen were there on Court orders without the knowledge of his client's family.
In response, Barrister Adekunle Funmilayo, the lawyer representing the Family, gave clarifications, affirming that the land belongs to the Itusi Royal Family represented by Chief Taofeek Odunsanyin.
Barr. Funmilayo explained that the disputed lands were two distinct landscapes that has been ascertained by the Surveyor General of Ogun State who visited to ascertain the veracity of their claims.
Stating that the Itusi Royal family took the opposing Family to a customary Court in 2010 where they obtained a judgement in their favour as owners of the land, resulting in an appeal made by the other family before Justice Ojo of the High Court in Ota.
The appeal was however dismissed, making the court issue the Itusi Royal Family with a certificate of execution or what is known as form ‘O’ to take total possession of the land.
Barrister Funmilayo said, “Instead of appealing the High Court judgement and the execution order, the opposing family went to the High to file a fresh case disputing for Iju land in Ota, dragging the Itusi Royal family as defendants contending the land with them, but the Itusi Family denied contending that particular portion of land with them, but that the Odunsayin family is laying claim only to the Itusi Baba-Ode land situated at Ilogbo, Ogun State, which the courts have severally judged in their favour, the Court in its wisdom conceded the 'Iju land in Ota' to the opposing family, but they did not obtain the certificate of execution for the judgement they got.
After realising they could not execute judgement on the land they now return using guns, cutlasses, machetes and several propaganda including false Press to want to execute the judgement on Itusi Baba-Ode land, using several forceful means to quit the legal occupants of Baba Ode from the land, which has lingered till today resulting in this Zone 2 Officers assault." Barrister Adekunle affirmed.
Barr. Funmilayo explained further that the disputed lands were two distinct landscapes that has been ascertained by the Surveyor General of Ogun State who visited to ascertain the veracity of their claims.
The Barrister is therefore calling on the AIG Mohammed Ari to beware of the land grabber Family whom he said have nothing to do with Itusi Baba Ode land situate in Ilogbo, because of the High Court judgement validly obtained with a certificate of execution by the Itusi Royal Family and has not been set aside by any law court.
The Barrister is therefore calling on the AIG Mohammed Ari to beware of the land grabber Family whom he said have nothing to do with Itusi Baba Ode land situate in Ilogbo, because of the High Court judgement validly obtained with a certificate of execution by the Itusi Royal Family and has not been set aside by any law court, rather the land they were given judgement for was the land in 'Iju via Ota' and not for the Itusi Baba-Ode Ilogbo land currently occupied by men of the Nigerian Police from Zone 2.
He therefore called on AIG Mohammed Ari, to call the two parties to a conferencing forum with lawyers from the two families and police lawyers to interprete the Court orders in accordance to the petition his client's wrote to the Zone 2 AIG on 5th May 2023.
No comments:
Post a Comment