Grief, Lamentation As Suspected Land Grabbers Demolish Over 100 Houses In Isawo, Ikorodu 

P.M.EXPRESS reports that over 100 houses at different levels of completion were demolished last year and the owners prevented from gaining access to them.

The house owners decried that their houses were demolished without any notice or order from a Court of competent jurisdiction. Some of them claimed to have been in the area from as far back as twenty years ago without  any fear until late last year, when they were chased away from their properties.

They are therefore, appealing to the Lagos State Government, the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, to ensure that the perpetrators are not only properly prosecuted but also made to pay for their demolished buildings.

Some of the aggrieved house owners stated that some of their colleagues, who are outside the country are yet to be notified of the situation in the estate.

One of the house owners, a retired civil servant, Sanni Gérard said, “I’m a retiree. I had a land here, which I bought in 2014. Suddenly, I had a call that someone had come here to vandalize the place. So I decided to come and have a check on it. When I came, I discovered that it was completely destroyed”.

“But before I was able to enter, they asked me to see the boys who were there. I was made to pay 3,000 Naira.They still did not give me access to my land .”

“So I came in because I knew what I wanted to do. I came in and I checked. They said I should go and see their leader, who is Olotu. I went and met him. He asked, do I have a land here? I said, yes, I have a land here. He said, do I have any document? I said, yes, I brought my receipt but he said that they are no longer valid.”

“They claimed that the new owner is Alhaji Sule SAS but they didn’t give us his phone number. They have also failed to show us any court order.”

“The man said, if I want the place, I have to go and pay additional money. I said, to who? I said, well, you have destroyed my property. You have to go and pay additional money to who? He said, that’s none of their businesses.”

The Chairman of the Community Development Association in the area, Adekunle Adeiga and one of the house owners at Wood Island d Estate also stated,” We are here because of the property destroyed at Wood Island. Because I am the general chairman, overall chairman of all the CDAs in this area”.

“I think around September last year, we had people coming in and they said they were overtaking the people that were there before. We don’t know, we are not among them.”

“We are community leaders. But after a while, I made an enquiry from them. They told me they are coming down and that this is their father’s property, which I have no order on.”

“But after some time, I just noticed that people were coming to complain to me that they are destroying some houses at Wood Island, which I called even the chairman that is even representing here at that Wood Island, and all of them denied that.”

“But I don’t know how they got it done. At the end, what I noticed was that all the lands, the buildings were destroyed.”

“The houses that were here should be at least, the ones that I knew, the uncompleted and the completed ones should be over 50 or 70.”

“The reason they gave was that they got an injunction from court that they are now the new owners of the land, which I requested even the community at a meeting at Oke Oko, requested for the court papers but they could not present any.”

The CDA chairman added, “Many times, we asked for the order or any documents from the court but they kept telling us that their lawyer will present them to us. But later the lawyer told us that he was not in possession of any paper”.

“And when the lawyer came eventually, maybe about two weeks ago, the lawyer told us publicly at the Oke Oko meeting that they are not with the judgement but they believe they will win the case.”

Eniran Orisan, the coordinator of the Arugbo Odo /Aboki Lawal family, who sold land to the affected house owners however, insisted that he is not aware of any court order against his family.

He stated that the Arugbo Odo /Aboki Lawal were as far back as 1904 adjudged by the Supreme Court of Nigeria as the rightful owner of the whole of Owutu and that they had been in possession since then.

He however, commended the intervention of the Police Authority in Abuja for the intervention so far, which has led to the arrest of two persons through the Inspector General of Police Response Team ( IRT).

He noted that the sponsor of the demolition, who had boasted of having the Police in his pocket, had prevented the Police at the Lagos State Police Command, Zone 2 Police Command, IGP Monitoring Team and FCID, Alagbon from making any headway with their investigations.