Property Owners Call On Lagos Govt To Check Oba Aromire’s Excesses

Many property owners in Iganmu Industrial Estate are currently facing a tear-filled season of groaning and gnashing of teeth due to ongoing torment unleashed on them by the Ojora of Ijora, Oba AbdulFatai Aromire.  

In a statement Wednesday by the affected property owners, they are crying out to Lagos State Government to quickly looking into and control the excesses of the Oba Aromire.

According to them, fierce looking hoodlums wielding all manners of dangerous weapons, claiming to be agents of the Lagos monarch and led by policemen attached to his office have laid siege on their properties since last April.

These hoodlums have visited them with wanton malicious damage amounting to hundreds of millions of Naira.

A visit to these plots majorly along Moshood Abiola Way (formerly Apapa Road), confirms the presence of these thugs allegedly deployed by Oba Aromire to arm twist property owners in the Iganmu Industrial Estate to pay new fees running into tens of millions of Naira or be forcibly ejected from their validly acquired property.

Unable to meet the Shylock conditions of Oba Aromire, many of these helpless property owners have sought relief from the Lagos State Ministry of Chieftaincy and Local Government Affairs; counting on the good reputation of that arm of the state government which oversees chieftaincy matters to rein in Oba Aromire who is on the loose, inflicting untold hardship and pain on law abiding citizens who acquired their property within ambit of known laws and traditional norms.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) has also been inundated with many petitions, reporting threat to life, stealing, malicious damage and use of the police to intimidate.

Details of the harrowing travails of owners of these properties who have suffered losses and malicious damage estimated at over N10 billion were clearly outlined in the petitions.

“These acts of intimidation by the Ojora of Ijora against owners of properties in the Iganmu Industrial Estate-Lagos has forced many landlords to abandon their validly acquired property following the reign of terror unleashed on them when they couldn’t meet the arm-twisting demands of the Natural Ruler of Ijora,” one affected property owner said.

Oba Aromire was said to have boasted that he has successfully wrested land from many owners in the same area including the Delta State Government, even as his agents continue hounding property owners in the estate.

The Iganmu Industrial Estate property owners lamented their frustration at dealing with Oba Aromire who carries out these brazen acts of criminality with tacit support from officers and men of the Nigeria Police.

One of them who preferred to remain anonymous out fear of what Oba Aromire could do to him said, “We were discussing with Oba Fatai Aromire because we did not know where he was coming from and he kept asking us for money for ratification and we were under the impression that we could reason with him until he came with area boys and the police to invade our property.

“This petition is not the first one we made to the IGP. We have a copy of the first one we did and it was minuted to the then AIG Zone, who led us on a merry go round and ended up not doing anything and was in truth working with the Ojora from what we learnt later.”

The source traced the beginning of the brigandage by the Ojora.

“Initially, he started by asking for N2 billion. However, we have discovered unassailable evidence that he has no claim whatsoever to these properties. While we were discussing, he decided to invade our property with his gangsters.”