Land tussle tears family apart in Lagos community

In Igbode, Ogijo local government area of Ogun State, tension is all-pervasive as some family members have engaged one another in violent fights over ownership of acres of vast farmlands in the village.  From one end, the Apena (High Chief) of Igode, Chief Oriyomi Solabi, has cried out to the Nigeria Police Force for protection […]

In Igbode, Ogijo local government area of Ogun State, tension is all-pervasive as some family members have engaged one another in violent fights over ownership of acres of vast farmlands in the village.

 From one end, the Apena (High Chief) of Igode, Chief Oriyomi Solabi, has cried out to the Nigeria Police Force for protection from people he called land grabbers, whom he said had placed a death sentence on him and his entire family after allegedly taking over his 10 acres of farmland.

 But from the other, one of those he mentioned as the arrowheads of the trouble, Sikiru Wasiu, dismissed the Apena’s claims, alleging it all boiled down to his greed. 

 Chief Solabi said he resorted to seeking the intervention of the state government and the police after an ordeal he said started sometimes in 2017.

 As he narrated, some members of his family had visited him to ask for his approval to bring in land grabbers to help develop the village. The visitors he listed included the Sikiru Wasiu, together with Jamiu Salawu, Wasiu Afolabi, Taju Yusuf (alias Poison), Musibau Ogunyemi and Saidi Sikiru, all whom he said were led to his house by one Lekan Lamidi he described as the village’s head hunter. He said Lamidi had earlier coordinated an oath by the villagers who, he alleged, swore not to invite land grabbers for fear they could take over their land.

 “The visitors came and said they wanted me to join them to bring in land grabbers to attack the Baale (community head) and the village Secretary because they felt those two had been cheating them in the sharing of land sales proceeds,” he said.

 But Solabi said he turned down their request and appealed to them that it was better to dialogue with the two men over land matters than bring in outsiders to cause mayhem in the village, as supporting violence would be unbecoming of him as a chief.

  He added the group left in anger and, before long, had brought in land grabbers led by a man he called Eleda and took over the village. “They chased the Baale and the family members in charge of the family land out of the village,” he said.

 “After raiding the village and successfully sending the Baale and the chiefs out of the land, they went to make a false report at the Zone 2 zonal office (ZIS) in the Ladegboye area of Ikorodu and we were all arrested,” Solabi explained.

 He stated further that at the ZIS, he was accused of threatening the group with a gun. “I was alleged to have been threatening them with gun. I was surprised because I don’t even know how to set a trap, not to mention handling a gun. I insisted on meeting with the person who made such a wicked allegation and they all came and we were presented before the officer in charge of the case. That was when I saw the people behind our arrest and I immediately knew it was all because of land matter,” he said.

 He said he had earlier reported certain activities of two of those who laid complaints against him, Sikiru Wasiu and Taju, alias Poison, to the police at the Ogijo police station and they were apprehended. 

  The Apena narrated, “After our statements, we were released on bail and a letter of summons was brought to Igode afterwards, but my name was not on the list. But to my surprise, on September 7, 2017, Lekan and his gang entered my 10-acre farm and uprooted all the fruits I planted. I load nothing less than two pick-up vans of farm produce to the Mile 12 market every weekend because I farm to feed my family.

 “They did not only destroy my farm produce, they started making attempts to sell my land also. I went to the Ogun State police headquarters at Eleweran, Abeokuta, to make a report and the perpetrators were invited. The officers invited them twice and it was on the day of their third invitation by the police that Lekan and his crew stormed my house and attacked my family with the aim of killing me for reporting them to the police.

 “I was on my way back from showing the officers the way out of the village when I got a call from a neighbour not to come home because my house was under attack. I had to hide in the shrine adjacent to my house to witness how they were battering my wife and daughters. They were armed with a gun, cutlasses and an axe. I quickly reported the attack at Ogijo. It was the Ogijo Divisional Crime Officer that rushed my family to the hospital.

 “Police later arrested one of the perpetrators, Saidi Sikiru, because I saw them myself where I hid in the shrine when they invaded my house . The rest quickly went to Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, to file another fake report on January 10, 2018.

 “I was arrested on my way to my brother’s house and while on our way to Alagbon the next day, Wasiu brought the police to search my house. After searching my house and even the generator house and got nothing incriminating, we set out to leave, and that was when one Gbenga called the police back to search my generator house again. That was when a bag containing Indian hemp was found.

 “I immediately challenged the police that they knew that the nylon bag was just planted there but they wouldn’t listen to me, and so I was taken to Alagbon Close where I spent two days before I was allowed bail. I explained all that has been happening to them at Alagbon but all they could say was that it was a family matter and that I should accept my fate and accept one acre of land instead of my 10 acres that those attackers had forcefully acquired.”

 Chief Solabi’s wife and daughters told our reporter that they were at home on the fateful day when the attackers, whose number they put at about 20, stormed in allegedly shouting they wanted to kill Chief Solabi. They said that when they protested, the men pounced, inflicting on them serious injuries that landed them in hospital.

 But Wasiu pooh-poohed Chief Solabi’s claims, describing him as “a mischievous man and trouble maker”, maintaining that the contentious land belonged to the entire family members and was appropriately apportioned.

 “Apena is my relative. We are from the same family branch but his problem is greed. The land in total is about nine acres and our branch was given three acres to share. But Apena was already farming on the land and has even encroached into other family branches land and he doesn’t want the land to be shared. Is that not greed?

“Apena has been a thorn in the flesh in the family and that was why the youths became angry with him and put up a fight. Apena and his wife have beaten and injured so many people because of land matters. If Apena sells a plot of land to you, he will place a charm on the same land and request that you give him money for sacrifice before he will remove the charm.

 

 “We took the matter to the police and after interviewing us all, they settled the matter and because Apena pleaded that he needed land to farm to feed his family, we, the other family members, agreed to give him an acre from the three apportioned to us, but yet he is not contented,” Wasiu said.