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Tag: Iyaloja

  • Iyaloja:  We’ll hunt down killers, sponsors – Police

    Iyaloja:  We’ll hunt down killers, sponsors – Police

    The ‎Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Abdulmajid Alli on Friday morning visited the Ijebu – Ode home of the  slain Iyaloja of Ijebuland, Alhaja Sadiat Eleweju, vowing that her killers would soon be arrested.

    Elewuju was hacked to death by six – man assassin who stormed her Itonrin-Molode-Sabo residence, Ijebu – Ode when her male househelps were away for the market.

    She was burried on Thursday according to the muslim rites.

    The new Police Commissioner, Alli, who resumed duty in the state on Thursday afternoon, said the Command would carry out thorough investigation ‎to unearth the identities and sponsors of killers of the market leader.

    According to him, the Command would mobilise men and materials to ensure successful investigation.

    ‎Alli who made his first official visit to Ijebuland, appealed to the deceased’s family to accept the incident with equanimity, stressing that manner of her death ‎was unacceptable.

    Alli said: “It is an unfortunate incident. I’m here on behalf of the Inspector General of Police and the entire police force to commiserate with the family and to assure them of the Nigeria Police Support on the incident.‎

    “This is to reassure the family and the entire people of the ‎state that our investigation and intelligence network has been spread across the state, very soon, we will make headway. Am assuring you that as soon as those behind the crime are caught, we will let you know.”

    He said he had received update on crime rate in Ijebuland and had set up teams to ensure adequate security of lives and property not only in the area but also in the entire state.

  • Tears as remains of slain Iyaloja is interred

    Tears as remains of slain Iyaloja is interred

    Tears flow unrestrained from the eyes of thousands of market women and men in Ijebuland as the remains of the slain Iyaloja of Ijebuland, Alhaja Sadia Elewuju, arrived her Itorin – Sabo residence preparatory for burial according to Muslim rites.

    The hearse bearing her remains was draped in white clothes pulled – up at her home by noon amid crowd of mourners and sympathizers who bemoaned the gruesome killing of the 82 years woman.

    Security agencies who had earlier cordoned off the residence near Otunba Gbenga Daniel Estate, Itorin – Sabo area of Ijebu – Ode, had a hectic time trying to control sympathizers who kept wailing and cursing the suspected murderers.

    The Nation gathered that the assailants struck when her male househelps were away to the market to buy food items for entertainment of guests ahead of the break of the Ramadan fast.

    However, the Ogun state Police Command have vowed to arrest the killers of the 82 years old Iyaloja of Ijebuland, Alhaja Sadia Elewuju, and bring them to justice as a new Police Commissioner, Abdulmajid Alli, resumed on Thursday afternoon.

    Alhaja Elewuju was said to have been attacked around 4pm am on Wednesday when her suspected assailants invaded her Itorin – Sabo home, Ijebu – Ode, shooting and also inflicting severe matchet cuts on her before leaving the octogenerian in a pool of blood.

    Alli, who took over from Mr. Valentine Ntomchukwu by 12:34 pm on Thursday said hoodlums and cultists terrorising Ijebuland would be flushed out, adding that Ogun state would also be made unsafe for criminals.

    Also, the Ogun Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, told reporters that people suspected to be “hoodlums” attacked the elderly woman and the Police found her in a pool of blood when someone informed them about the attack Adejobi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) said the police are on the trail of the Elewuju’s killers, assuring that the Police would put measures in place to avoid similar killings in future. According him, the woman was taken to a hospital in Sagamu but later transfered to a Lagos based hospital where she died.

    He explained that the new Police Commissioner,  Alli, will visit the family of late Iyaloja soon to commiserate with them and also give the family the assurance that the culprits would be brought to book. According to him, the Command is not unaware of the peculiar nature of crimes being committed in Ijebu – Ode as the Police would not leave any stone unturned in ensuring that innocent lives are not wasted by criminals.

    The Police in Ijebu – Ode and detectives from the Igbeba Police Area Command were said have swunged into action to unravel the circumstances and motives behind her gruesome attack.

  • Ogun market woman leader killed

     

    Tension is mounting in Ijebu – Ode as all markets are closed following the killing of the Iyaloja of Ijebuland, Alhaja Sadia Elewuju, in her Ijebu – Ode home by people suspected to be assassins.

    Alhaja Elewuju was murdered around 3am Thursday when her assailants reportedly invaded her Itorin – Sabo home, Ijebu – Ode, shooting and also matchetting her before disappearing, a source told The Nation.

    The Nation gathered that neighbours and some family members first rushed her to a nearby private hospital situating along the Ijebu – Ode – Ore expressway but later taken to the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital(OOU), Sagamu, where she reportedly died.

    The Police in Ijebu – Ode and detectives from the Igbeba Police Area Command have swunged into action to unravel the circumstances and motives behind her gruesome attack.

    The Nation tried contacting via phone calls, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, for reaction but there was answer from his end when the phone rang.

  • Iyaloja Ado-Ekiti released 12 hours later

    Iyaloja Ado-Ekiti released 12 hours later

    •Market women protest ‘extortion’
    •APC: arrest is impunity taken too far

    The Iyaloja of Ado-Ekiti, Chief Waye Oso, has been released from police detention, 12 hours after her arrest.

    Mrs. Oso told reporters in her office at Erekesan Market yesterday that she breathed the air of freedom at 10am.

    She was arrested on Monday at 7.30 pm on charges that she allocated land for market stalls at Awedele area of Ado Ekiti to some women after collecting N93 million from them.

    The Iyaloja was detained at the office of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Police Headquarters, Ado Ekiti.

    Mrs. Oso fingered Governor Ayo Fayose as the brain behind her ordeal, claiming that the officers who arrested her told her they were acting on his (Fayose’s) order.

    She maintained that her arrest and detention were politically motivated.

    Mrs. Oso said: “I challenge anyone with evidence that I collected N93 million or sold market land illegally to come out.

    “My arrest and detention were politically motivated. I have heard before that some people had threatened to implicate me and what I went through was the execution of the plot.

    “This land belongs to O’odua Group. It was Fayemi’s government that brokered the deal between us and the company.

    “The money paid to us, which I did not receive directly, was spent on the clearing of land. No money was paid to me.

    “I want to say that whoever paid to me should  confront me. My arrest was just a ploy to rubbish my name.

    “We had allocated the land three years ago, including the one given to ready-made cloth sellers. The question of defrauding anyone did not even arise at all.

    “I didn’t collect money on wood, cement and block as being alleged by my detractors and the god of the market is hearing.

    “I challenge anyone who said I collected money from him or her to  prove it.

    “O’odua Group did the survey, the plan and the Certificate of Occupancy.”

    The Iyaloja added that she entered into a lease holding agreement with O’odua Group during the Fayemi’s administration for land allocation at Awedele with the promise that N3,000  would be paid yearly by traders to the company.

    But some traders at the Erekesan Market accused Mrs. Oso of extortion.

    The aggrieved traders, who spoke with reporters at the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, alleged that they paid N19,000 to the Iyaloja without being allocated spaces.

    Speaking on their behalf, Mrs Joke Aduloju , a cloth seller, alleged that her group paid N19,000 to Mrs. Oso but many of them were yet to be allocated spaces.

    Mrs. Aduloju called on the government to address the issue so that they can meet the September 8 deadline.

    “All the units in the market, including pepper sellers, sellers of ready made dresses, shoe sellers and many others paid the money. But some are yet to be allocated spaces.”

    The representatives of Ibo traders, Richard Uzokwe and the youth wing, Richard Folamade, urged the government to take over land allocation at Awedele.

    They appealed to the government to include some of the traders in its Committee on Land Allocation.

    Commissioner for Lands Tayelolu Otitoju said the alleged payment to Mrs. Oso was illegal.

    Otitoju said: “We don’t want crisis or chaos in Ekiti. But I want to say that you have to go by the law on land allocation in this state.

    “Going by the country’s land law of 1978, the state is empowered to allocate lands and not individuals. So, you should be ready to pay for you to get spaces the normal way.

    “Government is ready to allocate one space to a trader. We won’t allow anybody to cheat the system.”

    Fayose, represented by his Special Adviser on Political Matters, Demola Bello, said the market’s designs have been done.

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned the arrest and detention of Mrs. Oso.

    The party said: “Such show of naked power is impunity taken too far and a continuation of clampdown on influential individuals, who refused to defect to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).”

    Its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, in a statement, expressed indignation at the governor’s relentless humiliation of the Iyaloja over the years, noting “the governor has been in a running battle with the woman for being sympathetic to the APC”.

    This, he explained, was farther from the truth as the land in question belongs to the O’odua Investment Company that operates outside the government’s purview.

    He added: “Former Governor Kayode Fayemi established a private/partnership scheme with the O’odua Group of Companies that would empower vulnerable women and youths in the state.

    “Fayemi directed Ekiti Enterprise Development Agency (EEDA) with Seyi Ayeleso as the Director-General to help Ekiti women get a place within O’odua Complex. This land belongs to O’odua Group. He wrote to O’odua asking for its approval and it was granted.

    “O’odua and the women signed a 25-year lease agreement at no cost to them but they would pay N3000 per shop to O’odua on completion. All documents giving details of the above are still in EEDA office for verification.”

    The APC spokesman expressed surprise at the manipulation of these facts to give the impression that Mrs. Oso had committed a crime, saying the government has no business with the market, until Fayose started seeing market development as a primary function of his administration.

  • Fayose instigated my arrest, says Iyaloja

    Fayose instigated my arrest, says Iyaloja

    The Iyaloja of Ado Ekiti, Chief Waye Oso was yesterday detained at the police headquarters in controversial circumstances.

    The market leader who spoke on telephone from police detention at about 8.30pm claimed that she was detained on the orders of Governor Ayo Fayose.

    Mrs. Oso said she was told to produce over N93 million purportedly raked in from the shops allocated to market women by the Kayode Fayemi administration.

    According to her, she did not collect any money from the Fayemi administration on the land and the shops allocated. She wondered where the Fayose government ‘manufactured’ the N93 million figure from.

    The Iyaloja said she was picked up at her residence in Ekute, Ado Ekiti by about 40 policemen who laid a siege to her house.

    Mrs. Oso said she knows nothing about the N93 million claims by the government and she never embezzled any money.

    She recalled that Fayose arrested and detained her twice during his first term in office and the bus donated to the market women was forcibly taken away from her on the streets.

    She said: “It was Fayemi that approached Oodua Investment to give us the land at Textile area to open up the place as an alternative market when he (Fayemi) said he wanted to demolish the main market but the market women advised him against such and he agreed.

    “Fayemi facilitated the arrangement with Oodua Group and promised to give the documents to me (Iyaloja) and work was ongoing before the governorship election which he lost.

    “Oodua agreed and we pay N3,000 per shop yearly but Fayose’s government came and asked us to be  paying N10,000 per square metre.

    “After fire gutted the main market (Oja Oba), Fayose promised to demolish it and build a new one and order that we move to the Awedele (Textile) market. We contributed money and was working on the place when government agents ordered us to stop work and obtain form.

    “We were shocked as to what forms to obtain again on a land Fayemi gave to us free of charge.

    “I want you to remember that he (Fayose) arrested and detained me two times during his last administration and the bus donated to our association by Governor Adebayo was taken away on the streets.

    “It is very shocking that I am being humiliated like this because I have never heard of any part of Yoruba land where an Iyaloja is given this unfair treatment and I have contacted my lawyer, Otunba Bisi Egbeyemi on the development”.

    But Governor Fayose, through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi denied the allegation. He said: “The issue had nothing to do with the governor; it was the police that arrested her for alleged fraud. The Commissioner of Police should be called to respond to her allegation.

    Police spokesman Alberto Adeyemi could not be reached for comments as he did not pick his calls.

  • ‘I remain Iyaloja of Iponri Market’

    DEOS Iponri Market in Surulere Local Government Area of Lagos State have a new Iyaloja? No, says the Iyaloja, Alhaja Mulikat Ajaga, who insisted yesterday that she is still in office.

    She was reacting to claims that she had been replaced with a new leader.

    Denying the claim at a press briefing at the market, Alhaja Ajaga said: “You only install a new market leader when the incumbent is no more alive.”

    She said she is still the Iyaloja, as she was crowned by the late Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji and given a certificate of authority.

    Alhaja Ajaga said: “It will be against tradition for anyone to try what they are saying. You will recall that the market was shut down in February last year, following a crisis, which was looked into, even before the death of Alhaja Mogaji.

    “Mama Mogaji waded into the crisis before she passed on. That was when some traders protested at the Lagos State House of Assembly. Mama kicked against the action and asked the market board, led by the present market leader, Mrs Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, to take over the matter.

    “The matter continued until she passed away and the new Iyaloja-General is handling it. She constituted a committee and told me I should step aside and allow the committee to coordinate things till peace is restored.

    “I stepped aside, as advised by Mrs Tinubu-Ojo, and allowed the committee to run. The arrangement was for them to work for three months, but three months passed, there was nothing, even eight months passed, there was nothing. There were provocations during this period, but I kept quiet.

    “I was in hospital last Wednesday when the traders called me on the phone that armed policemen had invaded the market and that some people were meeting and planning to remove me. I dismissed the information, because I know it’s not possible. But I thank God that I was not around. They thought I would cause crisis, so they brought police to arrest me.”

    She appealed to Oba Rilwan Akiolu of Lagos and the state government to intervene.

  • God made me the new Iyaloja, says Tinubu-Ojo

    The new Iyaloja General of Lagos State, Alhaja Shade Tinubu- Ojo, has debunked insinuations she was imposed as the leader of market men and women in the state.

    She also promised to make markets in the state a point of positive reference in the country.

    She spoke during the commissioning of the new concrete floor for the tomatoes section of the popular Mile 12 market at the weekend.

    Addressing the market women and men, Tinubu-Ojo said: “It is not true that I was imposed. Nobody can impose anybody on the market women and men.

    “I am not a stranger to them. I have been working with them long before now as you also heard from Alhaji Haruna, the chairman of Arewa perishable food market.”

    She added: “It is the will of God that I should be in this position today. I had my own ambition in life but when God has a different plan for you, you must listen and follow His will otherwise you may end up finding yourself in a ditch.

    “If it is not God’s will and mama anointed me to succeed her, it will not work.”

    She promised to make Lagos markets a positive reference point for others in the nation.

    According to the market leader: “Just as Lagos State is a point of reference for other states, my plan is to make all the markets in the state a positive point of reference for other markets in the country.

    “I want to appeal to all of you to corporate with the government by paying your taxes. It is when you pay your taxes that you can get the best from the government.

    “It is also important that the market is kept clean especially now that we are in the heart of raining season.”

    The chairman of the perishable foodstuffs market, Alhaji Haruna Mohammed, said: “We in Mile 12 market are grateful to Allah for giving us a quintessential leader like her to succeed our late Mama Abibatu Mogaji.”