Residents of Ilupeju, a community in Ikire, the headquarters of Irewole Local Government Area, Osun State, are living in perpetual fear as land grabbers have literally turned the place into a battleground. For many of the residents, the sound of an incoming call on their phones triggers fear that the caller might want to inform them that their homes are being attacked by the hoodlums.
Some residents of the community, who spoke with our correspondent, lamented their ordeal, saying that they hardly sleep at night on account of the unseemly activities of the hoodlums.
Just like it obtains in some satellite communities in Lagos and Ogun states, the residents of the Osun community are being tormented by the hoodlums popularly called Omoonile, who see themselves as the living generation of landowners.
Our correspondent gathered that the hoodlums usually wait for residents to go to work before they strike, destroying buildings and other forms of property and generally wreaking havoc.
One of the victims, Taiwo Ogungbe Yekeen, a commercial motorcycle rider and alumnus of one of the higher institutions in the state, said it was his inability to secure a job that forced into riding commercial motorcycle in order to eke out a living.
He said it was with the proceeds of his okada (commercial motorcycle) business that he built the house that was recently torched by the hoodlums.
With his house torched twice in a space of seven days, his house was torched twice, he resorted to moving into his family house within the town.
“I’m terribly sad,” he told The Nation.
According to him, while the family house is not convenient, it is sad that the fruit of his hard labour had been destroyed and also embarrassing that he had to return to the family house he left many years ago.
He recalled that the attacks started on January 17, 2022 with his house as the first target.
Yekeen said: “I had the premonition that something bad was about to happen. But very much unlike me, I came back home after dropping my wife in her shop. Around 4:30 pm, I left the site to go to the main town, and at about 7 pm, I got a call that my house was burning.
“But for the commercial motorcycle rider I had met on the way and he followed me home, my house would have been razed completely.”
He said it was the okada man that mobilised other people in the neighbourhood to put out the fire. “Otherwise, I would not have been able to salvage the building,” he said.
He recalled that the first time the house was torched by the hoodlums, he spent more than N200,000 to do the repairs.
He was, however, not that lucky when the hoodlums visited the community again seven days later. While he was taking his children to school, he got a call that his house was again burning.
““This was what made me to leave the community and move back to the family house.”
“I fainted three times when I saw the amount of damage done to my building. The hoodlums came twice in a space of seven days.”
Yekeen added that he and his children might live with the pain forever, given that the incident affected the psychology of his children about life.
“They were introduced too early to the cruel joke life plays on people.
“It makes me sad that each time my children see their mates in their school vests, they remind me that theirs were burnt in the fire incident. At that age, they have become conscious of things like that,” he said.
As if the hoodlums were bent on driving the residents out of the community, Yekeen said the house beside his was also torched about a week later.
“In fact, the lady that owns the building was on her way to church when she was told that her house was burning.
“Initially, I thought I had offended somebody and the person was punishing me for my offence. But when I saw that, I had a rethink about the whole matter,” he said.
Although he said it was difficult to estimate how much was lost in the fire incidents, it would require a lot of money to renovate the houses.
“I was told that I will have to re-roof the house. You know how much it would cost to do it. Where would I get money to do that?” he asked.
He said the only consolation was that the hoodlums did not come at night, saying: “It would have been worse. They put fire on every corner of the building in order to prevent the residents from salvaging their property.
“We are tired. Any time we think about this, our minds would not be at rest. I could not sleep last night, because the family house we moved to is not conducive for my family.
“I was living in my personal house but now have to live in a family house. It makes me sad.
“The mattress they burnt cost me N120,000. I now sleep on the mat. Even as a student, I didn’t sleep on a mat. It is sad.”
Another victim, Isiaka Bashiru, whose house was torched, told The Nation that he was tired of constant harassment from hoodlums whose activities he likened to those of terrorists.
According to him, since the attacks began, it has been difficult for the residents to put their minds at rest because nobody is sure who the next victim of the hoodlums would be.
Recalling the day his house was burnt, he said: “It was not long after I left home for my place of work. I was called that my house had been torched. That was on January 25.
“I had to mobilise some people who helped in putting out the fire.”
He said the matter was reported to the police and they promised to look out for those who were responsible for the dastard act.
“Unfortunately, the police could not make an arrest until the hoodlums came again to torch another house in the community.”
Bashiru said his house had been visited twice by the arsonists within the year, first on January 25 and then on April 6.
“The first time they burnt my house, I lost N850,000 cash. I had kept the money in the house with the hope of using it for a project, in addition to other things that went with the fire,” he said.
Bashiru told our correspondent that the people suspected to be behind the attack were called by the family, but they refused to turn up. “Probably those who sold the land to us do not understand the gravity of what is going on in the community,” he said.
Bashiru had moved to the site about one and a half years ago though he bought the piece of land about seven years ago.”
He, therefore, appealed to the Osun State Government to come to the aid of the community, saying that the destruction has been massive.
“Now it is houses that those people are burning. They could graduate into attacking people in their homes.
“The government should please assist us because most of the residents cannot sleep in their homes again as the houses have been completely razed.”
Another victim, Ganiyat Titilayo, said she bought the land about 13 years ago and had been living in the house for more than a year after completing it.
Unfortunately, barely two years after she moved in, the hoodlums struck and her bedroom was torched shortly after she had the burial of her mother.
“They burnt a lot of things. A month after, they came again and burnt the whole building,” she said.
She feared that that the attacks had become incessant and if nothing was done quickly, the hoodlums would continue to perpetrate wanton destruction.
At the time of filing this report, no fewer than six houses had been burnt with some attacked twice after renovation.
Titilayo said the attack on her house occurred a few days before the planned restocking of her shop.
She said: “I kept N350,000 in my bedroom during the second attack. When they came the first time, we had close to N450,000 cash but lost everything in the fire.
“Besides the damage they did to our windows, asbestos, mattress, sliding door and others, we also lost our phones to them.”
It was after about six houses had been attacked that the residents decided to take the bull by the horns. They reported the matter to the police as well as the traditional ruler of the town who both assured the victims that the matter would be addressed.
The community then decided to set a trap for the brains behind the dastardly act. Luckily, two of the suspects were caught and have since been detained by the police in Osogbo, The state capital.
The residents, however, believe that the move was too little too late, given the massive damages that had been done already.
“I am afraid that the police do not have enough manpower to manage the security situation in the town. That is why the criminals are having a field day,” a resident lamented.
Why residents are being terrorised
The Nation gathered that the disagreement among the family members who sold the land to the current occupants could be responsible for the crisis.
“I think those that felt cheated are the ones who engaged the hoodlums to cause trouble in the community,” a source said.
Many of those who bought land in the community said they were not aware of any disagreement among the owners of the land at the time they bought it.
The grouse of the hoodlums, it was alleged, is that their parents sold what should have been their inheritance to ‘outsiders,’ leaving little or nothing for them to live on.
A source said: “From what we gathered, some aggrieved children of those who sold the land to the new owners had complained during one of their meetings that their fathers sold the land without leaving anything for them.
“They didn’t get anything from the proceeds of the land and that was their own bone of contention.
“They said it was their fathers that caused what they were doing.”
Residents appeal to Osun government
The residents of Ilupeju are appealing to the Osun State Government to come to their rescue.
Yekeen told The Nation that just like some other people whose houses were burnt, he was in debt and the hope of rebuilding the house on his own was deem. He is therefore seeking the government’s assistance
“If they cannot give us cash, let the government help us in renovating the buildings. The government can help us reroof the buildings and make them habitable,” he said.
He also called on the government to provide security for the community.
We’re on top of the matter —LG boss
The chairman of Irewole Local Government Council, Remi Abass, told The Nation that efforts were being made to find the remote and immediate causes of the crisis in the community.
According to him, contrary to the allegation that the local government was not doing anything to arrest the situation, the council convened a security architecture meeting of stakeholders, including police officers and community leaders who are experienced in security matters.
He said: “The first agenda was to stop continuous occurrence of this and dig into the roots of the crisis.
“By the time we are able to fish out the perpetrators, we will ensure that no power, no matter how great, is able to circumvent justice on those that were already arrested.”
Abass said he had already instructed the DPO to ensure that there was surveillance on the area because the incidents happen when people are not around during the day, and had also ensured that uniformed and non-uniformed security agents monitor the community.
“We have mandated the DPO to prove the immediate and remote causes of the issue. The committee is still working on it,” he said.
He believes that if there is a dispute on any land, the aggrieved party should seek redress in court.
“It is not to disturb the occupants of the land or destroy their properties.
“We want to really know whether it is related to omoonile or other factors.
“The committee is still working, and until they come out with their own findings, that is when you start investigating.
“You may be looking at it from one side but it could be from the other side. That is why we have not come up with what could be the cause.”
