Friday, March 29, 2024

Speculators seizing lands in Obasanjo’s name, says group

A religious group, the Movement for Islamic Rights and Justice, has warned speculators in Ogun State seizing parcels of lands belonging to hapless Nigerians under the pretext of doing so on the instructions of former president Olusegun Obasanjo to desist.
MIRAJ, in a petition written to the Ogun State Government and obtained by our correspondent on Thursday, also said there were attempts by some people suspected to be land speculators to implicate residents of Adekoyeni and Ajambata villages along Sokoto Road, Atan-Ota, Ogun State, in the killing of people in the area.
The petition signed by MIRAJ’s National Secretary, Segun Daud and General National Legal Director, Kazeem Adedeji, alleged that suspected land grabbers had perfected plans to use the corpses of dead persons to “set up” residents of the villages for murder in order to get rid of them and take over their lands.
MIRAJ, which claimed to have written its petition on behalf of the local chiefs (Baales) of the two villages, accused suspected land grabbers of using Obasanjo’s name to seize land unjustly at Adekoyeni, Ajambata, Araromi Orita and Oluwanishola (a.k.a Abule Teacher) villages.
“It is a common practice among the land grabbers to create confusion in and around the community by depositing corpses at the villages or rob the members of the villages with gun and accuse them of murder or robbery, purposely to have their way over the communal land.
“Once this is done, they immediately contact their sponsored police officers within the area to raise false alarm, get the villagers arrested, detain them and further get remand order in perpetuity before the magistrate Court, which does not have jurisdiction on capital offences.
“The agents have turned the villages to their base, and it is beyond the power of the villagers to confront the land grabbers, especially with the aid and supports of most influential personalities within and outside Ogun State. The new trend of event is the use of soldiers to harass, humiliate and physically assault the village heads,” the petition reads in part.
Speaking further on the plight of the villagers, the group said, “Suffice it to say that the background circumstances giving rise to this petition was that on Sunday, 31st July, 2016, at about 7:30 p.m, when some unknown thugs (10 boys and 2 ladies), led by one Sunday Oladele, acting under the authority of the above-listed agents, sneaked into the boundary between Adekoyeni and Ajambata villages, with a Varagan Bus, Lagos colour yellow, with registration No: SMK 983 XR, to deposit a female corpse at the boundary of the villages.
“This was done purposely to set the villagers up and fortunately for the villagers, the thugs were sighted at The Point where the corpse was to be buried at the boundary. The villagers immediately challenged the thugs and two (2) out of the thugs escaped while others were arrested through the assistance of Safer High- Way Police Officers, with their Team Leader known as Inspector Alade.

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