- Lagos Assembly vows to intervene
No fewer than 100 residents of a group of communities, Abomiti Zone, Yeguda and Eyin Osa in Epe Local Government Area of Lagos State on Monday protested at the Lagos State House of Assembly over alleged sale of their ancestral land by a committee set up to facilitate their resettlement following the development of the Lekki Free Tade Zone a few years ago.
The protesters displayed placards bearing messages such as “Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the land you gave us for our resettlement has been taken from us, save us”, ”They have hijacked our land from us”, “Bring us back to our resettlement land scheme,” among others.
The aggrieved residents claimed that government officials had hijacked their resettlement land.
The protesters submitted a petition to the Majority Leader of the Assembly, Hon. Noheem Adams Eti-Osa 1, against the Central Working Committees in charge of the resettlement scheme.
The protesters were led by the leaders of the development associations of the three communities.
They demanded that the government returns their lands to them and remove squatters from the area.
Speaking during the protest, two traditional rulers, Chief Femi Abdullah (Baale Osunlaja) and Chief Femi Obafemi (Baale Onigbongbo Epe) said the government had promised development in exchange for their land but had reneged on the promise.
In his remarks, counsel to the communities, Olofinlade Oludayo, explained that the land was taken from the owners under the guise of resettlement, noting that the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) have since been abandoned.
Responding, the Majority Leader Hon. Noheem Adams assured the protesters that their grievances would be looked into, adding that the House of Assembly would investigate the matter.
It will be recalled that the communities, penultimate week, begged Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to help stop the ongoing unlawful sale of their ancestral land by the Central Working Committee in charge of their resettlement.
At a press briefing held in Lagos, the Baales (village heads) of the communities explained that their ancestral land and homes were taken from them in 2006 to pave way for the development of the Lekki Free Trade Zone by the administration of former Governor Bola Tinubu.
They said that alongside other villages, they were resettled and merged into three communities.
They claimed that the people in charge of their resettlement have since been selling their land unlawfully and keeping the proceeds of the sale for themselves.
It was learnt that in 2006, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was at the time the Governor of Lagos State, conceived and nurtured the biggest ever investment hub in Nigeria and Africa, the Lekki Free trade zones, a hub uniquely designed to handle, reconfigure and ship out goods for the economic growth of Lagos State and Nigeria.
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About 300 communities were affected and these communities were later merged into three zones namely Abomiti, Yeguda and Eyin -Osa.
One of the community leaders, Chief Obafemi Onayemi, who is also the Baale of Onigbagbo community in Abomiti Zone, said that a deal was brokered between the state government and the communities by the Lekki Worldwide Investments Limited.
He however noted that there was a twist as the central working committee created to bolster quality representation has turned