Officials of the Lagos State Task Force on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit yesterday reclaimed a N2billion Estate allegedly seized by suspected land grabbers in Gbagada.
Led by their Chairman, Bayo Sulaiman, a Chief Superintendent of Police, the officials got to the estate around 10am and took over the property. Suspected thugs fled on sighting them.
The Estate was built by Stardust Estate Limited after buying the property from the Lagos State Government in 2007 with over N1.5 billion loan.
The suspected land grabbers said to be working for a popular Lagos family seized the property from the developer claiming that the place belong to the family.
A Lagos High Court had restrained the Oloto Family from encroaching on the land but the family ignored the judgment to sack the developer.
Task Force Sulaiman said Stardust legally acquired the property, which is about 27 plots from the government to build an estate. The firm has certificate of occupancy (C of O) for the property, he said.
He said a survey by the Surveyor-General Office showed that the land does not belong to the Oloto family, adding that the Attorney-General, through the Solicitor-General had written to the Oloto family to stay away from the land. But the family, he said, refused and took over possession of the already built estate and started selling the houses on it.
Sulaiman said the family waited for the company to develop the estate before taking it and putting it up for sale. Those who had bought 4-bedroom duplex were chased out of their apartment.
Vehicles belonging to the family found on the land were towed away by the task Force; some people were arrested over the issue.
Dr. Akin Akinmokun, Partner, Stardust Estate Limited lamented that the bank was already harassing the company to pay back the loan. The company, he said, lost about N2 billion because of the land grabbers activities.
According to him, the company legally acquired the land from the government in 2007 and also obtained the C of O.
Investigation revealed that after taking over the estate, the family began to sell the houses therein through Westgate Properties on Opebi Road, Ikeja, Lagos the company’s signboard on the estate’s wall.
A representative of the family, Adeola Egbeyemi, 60, refused to speak to newsmen at the estate. She was arrested by the task Force and taken to its Alausa, Ikeja head office, where she made a statement.
In her statement, Egbeyemi insisted that the land belongs to the family, adding that there are plans to build a Millennium Estate on it.
