Police Hunt For Landlord For Allegedly Using Suspected Armed Robbers To Attack Tenants

MICHAEL AKINOLA

A landlord, Bayo Alatise and his wife, Eniola, of No. 8 John Bamidele Close, off Omo Oye Bus Stop, Abaranje, Ikotun area of Lagos have landed in trouble after he allegedly hired over 30 armed thugs and suspected robbers to rob and destroy tenants’ properties in a bid to eject them forcefully.

P.M.EXPRESS reports that Police operatives from Ikotun Division led by the DPO, CSP Johnson Adagba, have commenced manhunt for Alatise, who was said to have gone into hiding while fronting his lawyer, Barrister Shola Coker, who was said to be privy to the dastardly act.

Apart from causing violence and terror, the tenants lost some of their valuables including power generating sets. The main entrance gate was destroyed, water pipes and many other things were vandalized by the bandits, who stormed the place on Sunday morning. 

It was not certain if Alatise is the new landlord because when P.M.EXPRESS contacted him on phone, he referred the reporter to Area M Commander for any information and declined to speak.

One of the tenants, Barr. Deji Obaderin, stated that some time in early November 2020, their known landlord of the house, Mr. Stanley Balogun, collected house rent from all the tenants therein,  those who paid by installments did and same as those who paid in full. All this payments were made despite the lockdown while not knowing he had the intention of selling the property in which they are tenants.

He said later, Mr. Balogun brought  two women and introduced them to the tenants at home as the new caretakers of the house. He told them that he has handed over the management of the house to them.Some days later, those women he had introduced as care takers, came back, met some tenants in the house and declared that they were the new owners of the house.

On hearing that, those who were present when they were first introduced as care takers, countered the statement due to the fact that the landlord did not introduce them as owners during their first visit, so they left.

He said after several threats, they wrote a petition to Area M Command and later filed a suit before the Lagos High Court when they realised that their lives and properties were in danger but that did not deter the supposed care takers.

*0n 31st of January at about 7am, Alatise came with hoodlums and OPC Members numbering over 30 with guns, dangerous weapons including cutlasses, hammers and tools. They started banging on the gate of the premises where we resided loudly. In the process, they succeeded in pulling the gate down since we refused to open it for them to freely come in and destroy our properties.Having succeeded in pulling down the gate with a sledge hammer and gaining entrance into the house, the hoodlums broke pipes, destroyed the generator house and took away everything inside. They also went into another tenant’s house, destroyed her things and took away a huge sum of money from her apartment after destroying electronic gadgets of other tenants and glass planes of apartments. One of the tenants phone was broken for recording the scene. They targeted and promised to kill me while they held us hostage for minutes” the lawyer, Obaderin said.

Barr. Obaderin said, “Before all these happened, the landlord told us he sold the building because he borrowed some money from the bank and he was unable to meet up with payment. Yet the house was used as a collateral to get the loan, so he wants to sell  the building ahead of time without the bank’s knowledge and that’s criminal and crooked. He also stated that he doesn’t want Omo Oniles in Abaranje to know so that they do not come to collect their ratification fee. I told him he should have considered us when he was selling especially those who just came in and those who barely managed to pay the rent during the lockdown.We told Alatise to follow due process of the law if he is ejecting us and in that suit we included Bayo Alatise, Madam Jumoke and Mr. Stanley Balogun”.

It was not certain when Bayo Alatise will end his hiding as the Police were said to be determined to fish him out from wherever he is hiding to face the full weight of the law for the alleged offence