Onyabo operatives attack, demolish physically challenged woman’s house

A physically challenged woman, Kehinde Olayinka, has accused some members of a local vigilance group in Ikorodu, Lagos, popularly called Onyabo, of beating her up after demolishing her two-bedroomed apartment in the area.
Olayinka, who is a prophetess of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Igbogbo, Ikorodu, alleged that the vigilance group operatives took the law in their hands by demolishing her home and forcibly ejecting her from her personal property.
It was gathered that the Onyabo operatives, backed by some other people from a certain part of the country, allegedly assaulted the handicapped woman, who had been bedridden for about 21 years, on the orders of one Mr. Fatai Durosimi, who had been engaged in a tussle over the ownership of the parcel of land on which the demolished property was built.
Some residents of the community told our correspondent that trouble began between the physically challenged woman and Durosimi after one David Awosinu sold the same piece of land to both parties.
Olayinka claimed that she had lived peacefully on the land she purchased in 2014 from Mr. David Awosinu, until Durosimi arrived in 2016 and began to lay claim to the land she had erected her house as part of the portion sold to him by Awosinu.
A resident of the area, Mr. Jamiu Babalola, claimed to have witnessed the attack on Olayinka by the vigilance group operatives.
Another resident, who simply identified herself as Mama Monsurat, alleged that Onyabo operatives and police men within the community collected bribe from Durosimi to assault the physically challenged woman.
The victim, Olayinka, told our correspondent that since Durosimi appeared on the scene and laid claim to the land she had occupied for years, life had not been the same again for her again.
“Durosimi appeared from nowhere and told me the land on which my building is belonged to him; that he paid for the land. It was like a dream to me and since then, he has employed every method to push us out of our home. On several occasions, he will come to my window and spray insecticide into the room, knowing that I cannot leave the spot. There was a day I was choked with insecticide, but for my husband that came to my rescue at that moment, I would have died,” she
said.
Olayinka disclosed that Durosimi began with threats of forceful eviction, adding that when that did not achieve the desired result, which was to force them out of the disputed land, he became more ferocious in his approach.
The prophetess disclosed that her protests that her building should not be demolished fell on deaf ears as she was given the beatings of her life.
“Durosimi and the men he sent beat me to a pulp and even tore my clothes off me. They threatened to use machete on me, if I tried to stop them,” she alleged.
Meanwhile, all efforts to speak with Durosimi were not successful as he was not available when our correspondent visited his house.
Efforts to also speak with him on phone was aborted as he quickly switched off his phone immediately he learnt that a journalist wanted to speak with him on the matter. He did not also respond to a text message sent to him.
When contacted, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Superintendent Chike Oti, said the case had not yet been reported to his office from the Igbogbo Division.
“The case was not reported to my office, but I will find out from the DPO and get back to you,”
he said.