An Oyo State High Court has adjourned to October 17, a land dispute suit between the Oyo State Government and the Oyewole family in Ibadan.
The family had sued the government over its acquisition of 404.76 hectares of land belonging to it, despite a Federal Government directive that the land be ceded to the Oyewole family.
At a resumed hearing of the suit, the first defence witness, Olufisayo Ogunbiyi, Senior Land Officer in the state civil service, told the court that apart from ‘Exhibit F’ there was no other letter written to the Federal Government in respect of the disputed land.
The said ‘Exhibit F’ was the letter written by the Oyo State Government to the Federal Ministry of Land ,Urban and Housing declaring that the state did not have anything against releasing the land 404.76 hectares to the original owners.
Ogunbiyi, who said this under cross-examination by the leading counsel to the claimants (land owner families), Barr. Olayinka Abiose, further stated that he was not aware that the Oyo State Government wrote any other letter to the Federal Government requesting for the same land under dispute.
He however disclosed that he was aware that the state government had released 20 acres to four of the owner families out of the disputed land before litigation began on it, adding that his ministry was not contacted by the owner families before the agitation began for the release of the entire 404.76 hectares of land to them.
