The quartet of Pa Elijah Folawewo, Kayode Folawewo, Sesan Odukoya and Dotun Olakunle – all representatives of Folawewo family of Siun in Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State – being the claimants, have taken Young Agro Services Company and Shodesam Properties Investment Ltd – designated as 1st, 2nd defendants – to a state High Court sitting in Abeokuta over alleged acquisition of 47 acres of land.
Also sued in connection with the land are the Director General, Bureau of Land & Survey, Ogun State and Attorney General & Commissioner for Justice, Ogun State, listed as 3rd and 4th defendants.
The land is situated at Abomide Village, via Obadeyi Road, opposite Imo Emulu/Day Waterman College, off Abeokuta-Sagamu Expressway, Siun, a suburb of Abeokuta.
In the suit marked AB/661/25 and filed on October 3, by a lawyer who craves being identified simply as Folawewo’s family lawyer, the claimants are seeking the court order, declaring that the purported acquisition of the land by the 1st and 2nd defendants without prior negotiations with them, being the customary owners of the land, is unlawful, null and void.
The claimants are also demanding N2billion as general damages from the 1st and 2nd defendants as unlawful acts of bulldozing and clearing acres of their land with economic crops, destruction of family huts and the age- long ancestral shrines.
They are equally praying the court to restrain the 3rd and 4th defendants from taking any decision such as processing Certificate of Occupancy against the interest of the claimants without adequate compensation paid to them by the 1st and 2nd defendants.
Read Also: Jalla kicks over undue FIFA ‘s intervention in NFF’s electoral process
The four representatives of Folawewo family want the court to issue an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, their agents, officers and privies from taking any further step that can disturb their interest in the 47 acres of land.
The matter has not been assigned to any court yet, but defending their right of ownership of the 47 acres of land, the claimants stated in the writ of summons that their progenitor, Adejimi Folawewo, migrated from Ita Lanloko Compound in Igbore, Abeokuta, centuries ago and settled at Abomide as was the practice at that time with valiant warriors to seek distant arable land for farming and settlement.
They claimed that after their progenitor had settled at Abomide, which he founded, he expanded his land holdings to encompass the 47 acres spread within Abomide village and stretching to what is today designated as Obadeyi, opposite Day Waterman College and up to the boundary of Abeokuta-Sagamu Expressway.
Efforts by our correspondent to contact Young Agro Services Company and Shodesam Properties Investment Ltd for their reactions did not yield fruitful result, as phone calls placed to their GSM numbers were not responded to.