By Robert Egbe
Heads and principal members of Omomunmi Oja Chieftaincy family of Oko Egan Alapa Village in Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State have accused the Registered Trustees of Ajah Community Development Association (ACDA) of illegally sacking their community and grabbing their land.
They said the ACDA, supervised by the Lagos State Task Force on Land Grabbers (LSTFLG), armed police and thugs on June 11, 2020, chased residents of the community and levelled tens of buildings with bulldozers.
The Lagos State Government and the ACDA denied the claims, saying the victims of the exercise were the land grabbers.
The family’s leader, Baale Wasiu Shitta, lamented that their ancestral shrines and farms were also destroyed, despite the land being the subject of litigation in suit No EPD/7325/LMW/2018 pending before Justice Ganiyu Safari of the Lagos High Court, Epe division.
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The suit is between Chief Wasiu Shitta & Another Vs Registered Trustees of Ajah Community Development Association & Governor of Lagos State & Attorney General.
Shitta said his family is the owner of about 58 acres of land with plan number LA/237/2007/107 A & B drawn by a surveyor, W. Adeniyi.
“We have been living in our inherited land since we were born. Some years ago, some people from the Ajah Community Development Association came and said the government had allocated our community to them,” Shitta said.
He said the matter was unresolved for years before the family sought redress in court.
“Two weeks ago, we got a call that our matter was coming up on June 18. But on June 11, we saw a team of Task Force officials, armed policemen and others with cutlasses who started demolishing our homes, destroying houses and sending people and children out of the community. We have all been displaced from our community,” Shitta said.
The state government said the enforcement exercise was carried out by officials of the LSTFLG to dislodge suspected land grabbers from parcels of land measuring 50.06 hectares at Block E, Plot 2 at Sangotedo, Lekki Peninsula sub-region in Eti-Osa area.
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