Land Dispute: Meadows Family Takes Possession of Demolished Monkey Village in Opebi

Following the controversy trailing the demolished illegal structures and shanties on a landed property located at Folorunsho Kuku Street in Opebi area of Lagos State, known as ‘Monkey Village’, the G.W.O Meadows Family, has taken full possession of the property. 

Speaking to journalists on Monday, Mr. Francis Monye, the Solicitor to Prosperous Ariyori Golden Ventures, the land developer that was given the concession by G.W.O Meadows Family to develop and manage the land, said they are acting based on several ruling of the courts which declared Meadows Family as the rightful owner of the property.  

The legal practitioner said the possession of the land was based on the ruling of the Lagos High Court in Suit No: LD/513/80 and Court of Appeal in Suit No: CA/1/16A/92, as well as the ruling of the apex court, the Supreme Court in SC146/1995, which were all in the favour of the G.W.O Meadows family. 

“It is not good to have illegal shanties within a city like Lagos. The place has become a haven for all sorts of crimes; people who are illegal immigrants living there. It is more like a training front for robbers; a place where they stashed proceeds of crimes. They come here to keep either stolen vehicles or stolen materials and this place also became a kind of terror to the environment. Most of the people in the shanties are people without any means of reasonable means of livelihood,” he said. 

Also speaking the solicitor to G.W.O. Meadows family, Mr. Yakubu Arowosola Eleto, warned land grabbers and illegal occupants to vacate the property and also called on the former Second Vice President of the Nigeria Bar Association, Mr. Monday Ubani, to desist from laying claims to the property. 

The legal practitioner who took a swipe at Ubani for accusing the land developer, Engr. Abiodun Ariori of using officials of the Lagos State Government to illegally grab the said land from his client, who he said has Certificate of Occupancy, C.of.O and other documents validating his ownership of the land, gave the former NBA vice president another three days to tender public apology after the completion of the earlier seven days ultimatum. 

He said failure to do so; he will take a legal action by filing a defamation suit against Ubani for defaming the land developer.   

Some of the residents at the shanties who spoke to journalists on Monday disclosed that they occupied the land and erected different structures without taking permission from land owners or the state government. 

“I have been living in this place for over 30 years. When I came here, it was a thick forest; I cleared it, developed it and built some ‘mansions’ at the place. I didn’t take any approval from government or the owner of the structure because it was a bush. I also have a church here. We have a lot of people living here and we don’t have anywhere to go after the demolition,” a man who identified himself as Pastor Osagie told journalists.