Ayobo landlords held hostage by land grabbers
Property owners in the community alleged that one man (name withheld) whom they described as a land grabber had been allegedly unleashing mayhem on the community, using his men to rape, maim an destroy properties in the quest to take over all the landed properties in the area. The allegation was made last Wednesday when […]
Property owners in the community alleged that one man (name withheld) whom they described as a land grabber had been allegedly unleashing mayhem on the community, using his men to rape, maim an destroy properties in the quest to take over all the landed properties in the area.
The allegation was made last Wednesday when a group of elderly women, numbering about 50 protested in front of the Governor’s office at Alausa, Ikeja.
The property owners who were mostly widows registered their grievances over the activities of the land grabber in Ayobo, calling on Governor Babatunde Fashola to urgently come to their aid and halt the situation from deteriorating into breakdown of law and order.
Carrying placards such as “Ajagun Gbale Gbode l’ayobo”, (land grabber takes over in Ayobo) “Ayobo community is in bondage”, “Egbawaooo” and several other placards, the women alleged that things had become so difficult that they could no longer go about their routine activities in fear of being molested or rough-handled by agents of the land grabber.
Spokesperson for the women, Mrs. Esther Sonibare traced the problem to one woman, whom she said was employed by the land grabber to usurp all the land in the area.
She said, “the man claimed ownership of all the lands in Ayobo. They are now terrorising us. They have quartered hefty men in one of building which they now use to terrorise everybody from morning till evening. They stop us from going about our normal business, even during environmental sanitation; they will intimidate us and take over our implements”.
She further alleged that one lady was now in hospital recovering from injuries inflicted on her private parts during one of the operations of the hoodlums.
She noted that the usurpers had levied N100, 000 on each settler to be used as settlement for boys, N250,000 for a plot of land and another N50,000 for job cards adding that to enforce compliance they now move from house to house damaging properties. She said at least three buildings had been destroyed along with over 15 vehicles.
She alleged that the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Ayobo had not developed the will to contain the matter. She buttressed her allegation with the detention of a boy in the police station for reporting the activities of the land grabber to policemen.