It’s uneasy calm in Agidingbi, Ikeja, following a possession notice served the residents and the loud protests of penultimate Thursday. But who really are the Akinole-Oshiun family and how come the whole settlement is claiming ignorance of the family? Gboyega Alaka attempts to unravel the riddle.
THE atmosphere was sober at the baale’s palace. Even though they weren’t expecting this reporter, you could sense the tension in the atmosphere. Baale Ganiyu Ayinde Haruna, who sat alongside an elder of the community, Muse Shefiu, 75, some elderly women and a couple of male youths, welcomed this reporter with a contemplative look.
It was Thursday, another full week after the quit date a certain Akinole-Oshiun family issued to the community, following a Supreme Court judgment, which they said awarded ownership of 398 acres of property in the area to them. It was also one week after residents of the community stormed the Lagos State House of Assembly, Alausa, to register their protest and seek government’s intervention.
The apex court judgment had awarded ownership of the Agidingbi area, with a large section, covering the Lateef Jakande Road, Acme Road, Fagba Close and other streets in the area, comprising over 2000 buildings.
A week before the protest, some men, ostensibly representatives of the family had also reportedly stormed the area, accompanied by police officers, pasting notices which read: ID/923m/99, POSSESSION TAKEN TODAY 26-4-19, By COURT ORDER.
The marking spared no structure or building, including Dansol School, Cadbury, LTV and coca-cola, all within the area. Of the notable buildings, perhaps only the palace of the baale was spared. Agindingbi is a sprawling community in the Ikeja Business District, which plays host to several businesses, large industries, media, residential estates, government establishments and of course, the ancestral Agidingbi community, which largely houses the locals.
We don’t know the Akinole family – Baale
But how exactly did this whole brouhaha begin, this reporter asked the Baale? Was the community aware of a legal battle over the community, and how long has it been on before this Supreme Court judgment?
According to the baale, “The Akinole family are at the centre of the whole problem. We just saw them that morning, around 6.30, pasting a message on the walls of buildings that they had taken possession of the properties. They pasted it everywhere. I first saw them around my personal residence, but I didn’t interfere with their activities; and when I got to the palace here, I also found that they had done the same here, virtually everywhere.
“They had been here once, twice, thrice; but it has never been at this scale. One thing I will however say is that the case they said they filed and the judgment they said they got, I, as baale of this community, and my people, are not aware. We do not know anything about it and we do not know the defendant in the case they said they filed.
When reminded that the decision is a Supreme Court Judgment and it would have passed through at least two other courts, with the defendant/s appealing before it got to the apex court, Baale Haruna insisted they were not aware of the case and do not even know this so-called Akinole family.
“We heard that when the Lagos State Government first acquired the whole Agidingbi in the Global Acquisition of 1969, they went to court. But we hardly paid any attention because they never served us any summons to any court or joined us in any suit.
“Besides, if this Akionle family are indeed of this settlement or have any historical link with this community, they should at least have one or two properties as family houses or ancestral homes or be able to point at the grave of their forbearers. That, as I speak, is not the case. And that is why I have categorically stated that we do not know them and they have never been part of us.
“Maybe they took the Lagos State government to court but that is not our business. After the acquisition of 1969, the government excised this portion for us, as a compensation and settlement for the indigenes, and we have been living here peacefully since then. So when they came with all their bravado that Friday, I was as surprised just as every other son of the soil and residents of the community.” Baale said.
Asked if he knows any member of this so-called Akinole family, Baale Haruna said, “I normally hear of one Agba-man Isiaka. I will assume that he goes by the name Akinole as well; but that’s the much I know of him.”
For more explanation, Baale Haruna referred this reporter to Pa Muse Yusuf, who looked visibly older. Pa Yusuf also maintained that the so-called Akionle family has no stake or ancestral link with the community. “What I know about the Akinole family would be when they and the Ashade family had a case over a plot of land. Mark my word, it was over a plot of land, and at the end of the day, we heard that Ashade won. We, as we’re sitting here, have never been involved in any case with them. Like Baale told you, the Lagos State government excised this portion for us when they did the acquisition and we have never transgressed or trespassed beyond our space since then. Most of the properties you see here have C of O and we, as law abiding citizens, have been paying the Land-use Charge. Before now, it was the tenement rate.
“In one of the reports we read in The Nation, they had a legal suit with the government; if that is the case, they should go and take possession of government properties, and not Agidingbi community.”
Pa Yusuf, who said it was the seven-day quit notice that sparked the Alausa protest of penultimate Thursday, said “We are in modern constitutional society; there is a law and you can’t just wake up and give a people, a whole community of over 200 years history and heritage, quit notice on their land. Our fathers and grandfathers have lived here well before the British began colonial rule. We were here as youths and children, and were part of those who welcomed Queen Elizabeth when she visited in the 1950s. Our fathers are originally Awori from Ota, with a mixture of some from Ijesha, and they have been here since around 1800 (AD), how then can you just stand up and start rewriting history?”
Next step?
Asked what the community’s next step would be, Pa Yusuf said “The need to tell us who they served court summons, who went to court with them; if you you’re talking of taking possession of a community of more than 2000 buildings, it has to have been a keenly contested case. The head of the family is Alhaji Femi Okunnu, an eminent lawyer and he has never told us of any pending case of legal battle over ownership of our land.”
When asked if Cadbury and other companies in the area bought lands from their forefathers, Pa Yusuf said, “No, they got it from the government following that acquisition of 1969. It is part of government policy not to totally obliterate ancestral homes and that was why they carved out this portion of the place for us as original settlers.”
Daddy-Daddy
On the streets, the atmosphere was equally tense, with every move of strange faces watched with suspicion. As this reporter walked back towards Agindigbi, an elderly woman, who had earlier directed this reporter to the baale’s palace, quickly pointed him out to another elderly man. “That’s the man seeking baale’s palace.”
With all eyes, young and old focused on him; this reporter quickly announced that he is a reporter and had actually spoken with the baale in the palace. Without any prodding, the elderly man, who later identified himself as Daddy-Daddy, launched into a long agitated explanation.
“Look, this is the letter the government has given us. They have told us not to pay them any attention. It is from the Lands Bureau and signed by the Permanent Secretary, Bode Agoro. What baffles me most is that these are people without any family house or relics to identify them as part of the history of this community.”
Leading the reporter by the hand into the visibly old and ancient building, which he said he inherited from his grandmother. ‘Come in, come in and see the house. It was built in 1830, or does this look like a modern house to you? Look at the bamboo ceiling, look at the wall closely, it is built of mud, I only plastered the exterior with cement to give it a facelift and a bit of modern look. The reason it is still standing is because I have never ceased maintaining and renovating it. How then can somebody come here and start telling us rubbish?”
At the back of the house, he led this reporter to a corner. “Look at these graves, the woman here (pointing at one of the graves) spent 120 years before she passed on, the person here (pointing at another) lived 96 years. The third is my mother’s; the woman who gave birth to me, she was 82. I am a fourth generation and I am 74, so we are not strangers or squatters. I am the Adzan of Agidingbi Central Mosque (next door) and a retired soldier WO2. People call me Daddy-Daddy but my real name, which many do not know, is Abayomi Muftau Ayodeji. This house belonged to Moriamo Are; let them show us their own mother or father’s house. In this town, we don’t have a cemetery, so we bury our elderly in the compound, they should show us their forebearers’ graves.”
Trouble looming
Daddy-Daddy also didn’t miss the opportunity to sound a warning that youths in the community are already charged and waiting for these ‘modern-day land-grabbers.’
“But for the baale, who has prevailed on the youths to be calm and forbidden violence, the boys are ready and waiting for them. It was because we don’t want violence that we embarked on that demonstration at Alausa, but if they try any rubbish, they would not know what hit them.” Daddy-Daddy said, fuming.
Ignore take-over notice -Alausa
Meanwhile, a public notice pasted on the wall of Daddy-Daddy’s house, titled: RE: EXECUTION OF THE ORDER OF THE HIGH COURT OF LAGOS IN SUIT NO. ID/216/771L & ID/923M/99 BY: THE AKINOLE-OSHIUN FAMILY, states that the Lagos State Government’s attention has been drawn to the public notice tagged caveat emptor-execution of order of the High Court of Lagos State in “respect of the parcel of land in Agidingbi. It said the parcel of land is “within the 7,300 (acre) acquisition which is contained in the Lagos State official Gazette No. 26 Vol 2 dated 24th october1969,” and that the Lagos State government had the title for the 7,300acres acquisition including the land in contention vested in her by Legal Notice No. 8 of 1976 published in the Extra Ordinary Gazette No. 25 Vol.9 of 18th June, 1976.
It concluded that “Notice is hereby given to all government allotees within the Central Business District and all members of the public that all parcels of land within the Central Business District are within the 1969 acquisition and that Government allotees should ignore the public notice served or pasted on their premises.”
It assured that “The Lagos State government will do what is required as permitted by the law to protect government allotees, their lives and properties.”
The notice was signed by Bode Agoro, Permanent secretary Lands Bureau.
