The Nation Newspaper

Tag: grabbing

  • ‘He stood against grabbing of national patrimony’

    A lawyer, multilateral diplomat and academic, Dr Babafemi Badejo, pays tribute to his mentor, Prof. Oyelêyê Oyediran, who died last December 11. He was 84.

    During my years at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) (1978-1982), many Nigerian members of the academic community visited as guest lecturers, visiting professors on sabbatical, etc. With Peter Badejo, Saidu Goje, Segun Oyekunle and others, we always took it upon ourselves to reach out to these compatriots, help them settle down and keep them company so that they will not be home sick.

    We dragged them to Friday night parties that included Africans from Africa like Joseph Njimbidt Ngu, Tim Ngubeni and Tony Brobbey; Africans from America like Cobie “Kwasi” Harris; Africans from the Carribean like Carlene Edie and many brothers from Haiti whose frechified names I am not able to remember right now. We had formed a formidable group at UCLA on building a pan-African orientation. It was not all parties, we were a strong anti-apartheid pressure group within UCLA and we picketed the Bank of America every Saturday pushing for it to divest from apartheid South Africa.

    One of these visiting lecturers was Dr. Onaolapo Soleye. He related as if he was in our age cohort even though he could easily have given birth to me if he had started as early as I did. He was to later introduce me to former Head of State General Olusegun Obasanjo when he also visited Los Angeles.

    But before Obasanjo, in 1979, he introduced me to Prof. Oyelêyê Oyediran who was to spend a year at the African Studies Centre offering courses in Political Science. Those were the days when people were passionate about academics.

    Prof Oyediran was less the partying type. But he did not escape our pressures. I remember subjecting him to watching one or two documentaries on atrocities against black people in South Africa.

    I will not forget his pause to ask me how the situation in the documentary I had shown was different from the situation in Nigeria if we substitute the  colour of rulers from white in South Africa to blacks in Nigeria.

    He set me thinking in a subtle way. That was his mentoring style that I would benefit from for several years as we built a very strong bond upon his being appointed a full Professor of Political Science at my alma mater – University of Lagos (UNILAG) and he became the Chair of the Department that had sponsored my graduate work to be a PhD holder in exchange for four years of service at UNILAG on return with the doctorate.

    Unlike many who did not return, I over-paid back by teaching for 11 years before joining the United Nations.

    As a young lecturer, Prof. Oyediran mentored, guided and supported me in many respects. We co-authored a few articles and I contributed in some of the works he edited.

    He actively thought we could realise democratic change and a smooth federal arrangement for Nigeria through sharing knowledge. I never knew of him lobbying for any political office.

    He did accept to collaborate as a member of the Political Bureau that Babangida hoodwinked him and others into believing that he meant well for democratic change in Nigeria based on the views of Nigerians.

    Prof. Oyediran could be said to have been naively trusting that Babangida would leave. Arising from his naivety, he edited with others: “Transition Without End…” I copied and pasted below, the few of his publications that Wikipedia posted: Nigerian legislative houses, which way?’. University of Ibadan Consultancy Unit, 1980; Essays on Local Government and Administration in Nigeria, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria, Project Publications, 1988; Transition Without End : Nigerian Politics and Civil Society under Babangida, edited by Larry Diamond, Anthony Kirk-Greene and Oyeleye Oyediran, Lynne Rienner Publishers (1997) ISBN 1-55587-591-2;

    Nigeria: Politics of Transition and Governance, 1986-1996, edited by Oyeleye Oyediran and Adigun A.B. Agbaje. Dakar, Senegal, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (c1999) ISBN 2-86978-071-0; Nigerian Government and Politics Under Military Rule, 1966-1979. Macmillan, 1979. ISBN 0-333-26898-9; Survey of Nigerian Affairs, 1973-1977 and 1978-1979. Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in co-operation with Macmillan Nigeria Publishers, 1981. ISBN 978-2276-49-9.

    He held his own internationally on the political science academic scene. He was appreciated beyond the shores of Nigeria as evidenced from his several visitations and posts he held in American and European academic institutions.

    Besides academics, Prof. Oyediran took me on literally as his first son. He looked out for me in the dog eat dog situation that Nigeria was transforming into. He over indulged me in many respects.

    When General Obasanjo sought his collaboration on being Secretary of the Africa Leadership Forum in 1987, he readily agreed. I was his assistant for almost a year as we organised Farm-House dialogues and the first International conference in collaboration with Hans d’Orville and co.

    Ayo Aderinwale later assumed my post and more as I was finding it difficult to cope with our non-materially reimbursed support to General Obasanjo as speech writer, special assistant, etc.

    My problem was not material but I could no longer cope as a full time lecturer, part-time law student, part-time publisher and husband/father to three children and responsibilities in the extended family.

    Prof. Oyediran was a principled Nigeria and one of those who reinforced in me that integrity is superior to material acquisition. His fallout with General Obasanjo was illustrative.

    When General Obasanjo became candidate Obasanjo for the presidency of Nigeria, he announced that he had formed a number of committees to look into several of his plans for office. He did not consult Prof. Oyediran but named him as chair of one of the committees.

    A furious Prof. Oyediran called me on the phone as I was in Nairobi working for the UN, and read to me a piece he had written to denounce the public announcement of his friend since secondary school days when he was one or two years Obasanjo’s senior.

    I put all my persuasion capacity into dissuading Prof. Oyediran from his intended public reaction. I failed. He insisted it was an issue of integrity for him. He published and denounced the President in waiting. He was not one of those to calculate on what he stood to gain if his friend occupied Aso Rock.

    Born at Ogbomosho on January 13, 1934, my fatherly friend and mentor passed on to the unknown place beyond my comprehension on December 11, 2018. He is survived by Mrs. Grace Aduke and two biological children: Omoloye and Oyelola. Many like Oluyomi, who literally sacrificed a lifetime to take care of him, second non-biological son Prof. Adigun Agbaje, Prof. Cyril Obi etc and many of his colleagues in the academia will surely miss him.

    Prof Oyediran lived a good and principled life that was dedicated to sharing knowledge without emphasis on pecuniary acquisitions.

    One of the great Nigerians who stoically lived against the torrent of grabbing national patrimony that Nigeria is today known for, is no more.

    As we believe in souls without proof, I join in seeking a peaceful repose for his soul if there are souls after life.

  • Police petitioned over land grabbing

    Members of the Kashowun family of Iponyin-Ade village in Sagamu Local Government Area of Ogun State have called on the Ogun Sate Commissioner of Police, Mr Iliyasu Ahmed, to come to their rescue over the activities of land speculators and grabbers who have constituted a threat to lives and properties in the village.

    In a petition dated Monday, July 24, 2017 and signed by the solicitor to the family, Mr Oluwaseun Sokunbi, on behalf of Chief Sikiru Olagunju Kafusanwo, head of the Kashowun royal family, it is stated that the activities of the land grabbers led by a self-styled traditional ruler in the village had thrown the entire community into panic and apprehension.

    Sokunbi said the self-styled ruler in the village “is a trespasser, land grabber and land speculator on the land of the Kashowun royal family of Iponyin Ade village, Sagamu axis of Ogun State who with the hoodlums he brought to the village had been molesting innocent girls and housewives of the community with impunity.”

    According to him, various complaints and petitions lodged with the various police stations against the petitioned had yielded no positive result as the activities of the hoodlums in terrorizing the family members continued unabated.

    The solicitor to the family said the petitioned kept telling “our client’s family members that if they failed to leave the community for them, they would be maimed one by one and keeping to their promises, our client’s family members had been dealt with on many occasions by the dangerously looking hoodlums in the village with impunity.

    Sokunbi noted that the situation got to a point that the entire community and family members were cowed to submission as the petitioned had defied all traditional history and family ruling house by installing and appointing chiefs and other chieftains in the entire community threatening fire and brimstone over any complaints from the family members opposing his choice of candidates.

    The petitioner noted that the last straw that broke the camel’s back was the sale of the family’s landed property by the “self-styled village head” without remitting a penny to the land-owning family of the entire Ipoyin-Ade village and community.

    Sokunbi pointed out that the family under the leadership of Chief Sikiru Olagunju Kafusanwo “is a peace-loving family that will not engage in any act that would cause a breach of peace, hence we decided to petition the Ogun State Commissioner of Police.

    In the light of this, we appeal to your good office to wade into this matter before it gets out of hand by checking the petitioned to limit his claims within the purview of the law by channelling their cause through the legal means rather than engaging vagabonds who brandish rifles and automatic pump action guns freely to waylay people in the community,” he said.

  • Monarchs involved in land grabbing risk dethronement

    Any traditional ruler involved in land grabbing and other illegal activities will be dethroned, the Lagos State Government said yesterday.

    Lagos State Task Force on Land Grabbing Coordinator, Jide Bakare, said at a sensitisation programme on the Lagos State Properties Protection Law 2016, organised by the Office of Civic Engagement, that the law provided for the dethronement of such monarchs.

    He said high profile land grabbers had been arrested and were being tried.

    Special Adviser on Office of Civic Engagement Kehinde Joseph recalled what people went through in the past to acquire land.

    He said: “People could not be sure of safety of their properties as forcible takeover and fraudulent conduct became the order of the day. The ‘Omo Onile’ syndrome was a widespread. Many communities were ransacked and property wantonly destroyed while government-acquired land, were not spared as such were trespassed with impunity.

    “There is no gainsaying the fact that a lot of people lost their lives as a result of this brigandage. People were denied the enjoyment of their property which they acquired through their hard-earned money.”

    This, he said, informed the treatment of the properties protection law, adding that to ensure the law’s effectiveness, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode set up the task force on land grabbing.

    Joseph added: “As citizens, it is our civic responsibility to obey the law as ignorance of the law is no excuse. The state will not hesitate to wield the big stick against law breakers as such people are undesirable in our communities. Our people deserve to live peacefully and enjoy their property. Anything short of this is not acceptable to the Lagos State Government.”

    He appealed to land owners to take advantage of the reforms on perfecting title documents “as it is easier and faster now to obtain these documents.”

  • ‘How we handle land grabbing cases’

    ‘How we handle land grabbing cases’

    ‘In handling cases, we first employ the method of mediation which has surprisingly been the most successful before we move on to others. A lot of people get frustrated about the time it takes to go to court but we have, more or less, provided them an alternative
    and most times they co-operate’.

    Major role of Task Force

    The major role of the task force is to eliminate the menace of land grabbing in Lagos State by implementing the provisions of the Lagos State Properties Protection Law 2016, which has prescribed various terms of imprisonment for the crimes under the law.

    Petitions treated

    since inauguration

    We have received about 1,300 petitions from the public since the Task Force was inaugurated and we have resolved up to 400 of them. We are not resting on our oars as work is currently ongoing on others.

    Methods adopted

    in handling cases

    We use various means in resolving these issues such as reconciliation, mediation and we have had to use force in some places. We have made arrests; there are some places under investigation. We also have a few cases in court.

    Parties’ response

    to cases treated

    In handling cases, we first employ the method of mediation which has surprisingly been the most successful before we move on to others. A lot of people get frustrated about the time it takes to go to court but we have, more or less, provided them an alternative and most times they co-operate.

    People understand that we have the force of law and government backing. So, whenever we call them for discussions, both parties usually have it at the back of their mind that this is government talking to them.

    A lot of time, we have found out that majority of these issues emanate from lack of communication. So, we provide the parties with the opportunities to talk together. Whenever we hold such discussions, we make the parties to enter into memorandum of understanding which is binding.

    Use of charms by Omo Onile

    I’ve heard people say it and each time they do, I just retort to them that here, we work with physical things. For instance, if harm was done to you by machetes, we can deal with that but we can’t deal with whatever we can’t see.

    So far, we have heard such allegations but never encountered any. When we go out on operations, the people warn us that those we want to go and confront are fetish and powerful. However, those things have never affected us; maybe because we don’t believe in them. We don’t have any mechanism in tackling them; we only deal with physical things.

    Rent from landlords

    after land purchase

    Whatever people do by way of agreement, I mean if they agree among themselves that after buying, you’ll pay a rent every year, all they are saying is that your land is a lease; you are not paying me outright payment.

    In some places, it is as low as N500; just a little amount to show that you are a tenant on the land. A case like that is completely legal and we have no issue with it. Where we have problem is when there is no agreement to that effect and somebody just wakes up and say you have to pay me for this land. That kind of person will have to face the Lagos State government.

    Challenges

    The major challenge faced by the task force is in relation to the police. The culture of the parties to land disputes using the police against one another had been so engrained that it has become difficult for some of the various police formations to accept that they don’t have the power to deal with land disputes other than to ensure that law and order are maintained.

    There is also the problem of lawyers aiding and abetting land grabbers in the name of carrying out a brief. We have thus received many court summons challenging our powers, especially when their clients are in the wrong side of the law.

    There’s also the challenge of lack of land documentation for many of our people in Lagos State.  We, therefore, take this opportunity to advise our people to take steps to document their land holding with Lands Bureau.

    Demolition of

    Otodo Gbame community

    I am not speaking for the government on this because I don’t have a brief. But what we have discovered in the course of our work is that when people are allowed to stay in a place for a long period of time, they tend to take ownership of the place. When such people settle, they erect buildings that don’t have government’s approval.

    They cannot approach the government for approval because they are not entitled to the land and various administrations allow them to stay in compassion and that is when such people start to feel they have right to the land; meanwhile they don’t. That is the case in many shanties in Lagos and government cannot fold its arms to the dangers of living conditions in these places. I am sure that some panacea will be provided for them in resettlement.

    Seeking redress

    The law specifically requires that anybody who has a grievance should send a petition to us; addressed to the Chairman of Lagos State Special Task Force on Land Grabbers and we can take it up from there. They should put in their petition all the details, facts, supporting documents on the land in question and they should make effort at including details of those they are accusing so that we will know who we are dealing with.

    They should also accompany their petition with an affidavit. The law requires that they bring along sworn affidavit so that we could punish those who bring us frivolous petitions. We have received many petitions in which it is the land grabber who is writing petition against the actual owner of the land; thinking that they can come and tell us lies. The affidavit will affirm that they have lied and that is punishable under the Lagos State law.

    Contacts

    Yes, whenever they are in actual distress, they can call us on 09020085005, 09096667123.

  • Lagos families defend client accused of land grabbing

    Lagos families defend client accused of land grabbing

    • ’Police should keep away from our land’

    The Orebiyi and Bakare families of Eti Osa Local Government Area in Lagos State have dismissed media reports branding Alhaji Jubrin Okelewu, Chief Executive Officer of Rest and Joy Nigeria Limited, Lagos, as a land grabber.

    The two families said at a press conference in Lagos that they sold an expanse of land to Okelewu’s Rest and Joy Nigeria Limited at Ogombo/Olokonla in the Eti-Osa Local Government Area between 2003 and 2005.

    Spokesmen for the families, Chief Findiu Ajani Oyekunle and Mr. Basheer Olayinka Bakare-Odedina, said they were

    the rightful owners of the land, but sold it to Alhaji Okelewu.

    “He is now the rightful owner of the land. How can somebody grab what he owns?” they said.

    On the crisis over  the land, the families said: “On May 30, at about 11am, about 50 armed policemen led by DSP A.A. Taiwo stormed the land in question, destroying buildings and fences with bulldozers. They also brought a Black Maria to take people away.

    “When we questioned their leader, he said the order was from above. We then asked for documents in connection with the demolition, but he could not produce them. He was just telling us that the order to demolish was from above.

    “While questioning them, an argument ensued. In the course of the argument, they started shooting and people were running helter-skelter. Many people, including old men, were injured.

    “Their leader claimed to have come from the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental Offences and Enforcement Unit, but he could not produce any document to back up their action.

    “We reported the case at the Area J Police Station and this was followed by a petition to the Inspector of Police, Solomon Arase, through Rita O. Opuoru & Co, our barristers and solicitors. All what we are now saying are in the petition to the Inspector General of Police.

    “As a result of the petition, the genuine owner of the land, Alhaji Okelewu, was invited to a meeting at the X-Squad, Alagbon, Lagos, on August 7, where he was arrested and taken to Abuja on the order of the Deputy Inspector General in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Danazuma Doma. On August 11, he was returned to the Federal SARS at Adeniji Adele where he was locked up again before his release on August 14.”

    They declared that any other person laying claim to the land has had no business with them and that the “ Lagos State Government did not allocate our land to anybody.”

    “The only portion the Lagos State Government requested for out of our land had been given to it and they have not even compensated us.

    “We are now telling the whole world that Alhaji Jubrin Okelewu of Rest and Joy Nigeria Limited is the genuine owner of the said land. He is not a land grabber at all. He is our client, and we are ready to defend him before the Lagos State Government or any court of law in the country. We are imploring the police to keep away from our land”, they said.

    Alhaji Okelewu, in his own contribution, said: “I bought the land from the families as they have said. I am a genuine and God-fearing businessman. I am a patriotic Nigerian working for the progress of the country through my business. I am not a land grabber. The land belongs to me.

    “I was arrested and detained over my property. While my application for the excision of the land was receiving attention in the ministry, they came to invade it.”

    As the conference was going on, we got a report that about 10 armed policemen and some surveyors had invaded the land again.

    The leader of the police team told Alhaji Okelewu that they were acting in accordance with the order from above, but they could not produce any document to back up their action.

  • Arresting land grabbing

    Arresting land grabbing

    •Lagos State House of Assembly moves to tackle a major challenge

    IT would appear that the Lagos State House of Assembly’s proposed penalties for “land grabbers” in the state were a development that merely awaited its time. Sooner or later, the authorities were perhaps bound to make some move to check perpetrators of the ugly practice of forcible entry and occupation of landed properties in the state.

    The violation had, regrettably, attained the status of a dangerous, destructive and negatively lucrative habit. Those who grabbed land were usually ready to go to extremes, with their eyes fixed on rewards. Consequently, many on the receiving end have had their lives shattered and their hopes dashed. The fear of the ubiquitous Omo onile , who sponsor or  carry out land seizures, has long become the beginning of wisdom in the state’s estate sector. The Yoruba word has become a loose term for unscrupulous characters who usually claim to have some interest in how land should be sold or developed.

    In this context, the provisions of the state’s properties protection bill 2013, which has scaled second reading at plenary, are cause for cheer. This bill, which is, interestingly, sponsored by a private member, seeks to prevent anyone, who without lawful authority, uses or threatens violence for the purpose of securing entry into any landed property for himself or any other person(s). If the bill is eventually passed, a special offence court shall try any person charged with contravening it, and if found guilty, would be liable to three years imprisonment or N300, 000 fine.  Also, it states that anyone found with firearm, weapon or chemical material or in company of any person so armed would be liable to a death sentence, which is a proposal that may prove contentious.

    The House of Assembly should be lauded for the thoroughness with which it is going about the issue, with the committees on lands and housing as well as judiciary, human rights and public petitions expected to consider the bill and present reports on it within one month.  This meticulous approach was correctly situated by the chairman, committee on lands and housing, Bayo Osinowo, who reportedly declared, “In Lagos State, land is our major resource. It is our petrol, compared to oil-producing states in the country. Therefore, nothing will be too much to protect its sanctity.”

    Furthermore, highlighting what was perhaps the crux of the matter,  Osinowo reportedly claimed  that 60 percent of Certificates of Occupancy (C of O) concerning landed properties in the state  were fake, saying that the bill was also aimed at correcting this anomaly. Indeed, those who go about seizing land often do so in the context of claims and counter-claims over genuine ownership of the disputed property. And the fact that these clashes have been known to occur, either before or during construction work, or even after, speaks volumes about the scale of the problem. It is a shameful reflection of social corruption and contempt for the law that people would forge such document.

    It should be said that by seeking to criminalise the odious practice, the lawmakers have already sent a welcome signal to those who sustain it. Without doubt, the bill, if passed, would create a necessary framework for civilised behaviour in the estate sector. The beauty of this bill is that it intends to lay down ground rules for owner-buyer relations in this area, which otherwise would probably continue to witness sour deals accompanied by gnashing of teeth, tears, and even bloodshed.

    It goes without saying that the land-owning families and their ilk, faced with the possibility of this bill becoming law, need to address with greater seriousness the issues that give them a bad name. They need to appreciate the embarrassment value of this law in the making. The House of Assembly should take this bill to a logical conclusion. It has all the makings of a people-friendly legislation.