The Nation Newspaper

Tag: land grabbing

  • Land grabbing: Lagos arraigns suspected notorious kingpin, six others

    Land grabbing: Lagos arraigns suspected notorious kingpin, six others

    The Lagos State Government on Friday arraigned a suspected notorious land grabber, Chief Kamorudeen Lamina before a Special Offences Court sitting in Oshodi over alleged forcible dispossession of residents of their land.

    Lamina, popularly known as Sir K, was arraigned alongside six others on a six-count charge by the Special Anti-Land Grabbing Task Force set up by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration.

    Lamina and his gang were said to have been terrorising the people of Ikorodu area of the State for some time before he was arrested on Thursday.

    Others arraigned alongside him are Mr Omotola Ogunsanmi, Mr Samson Shobule (A.K.A Samson Salau), Biliaminu Orega (A.K.A Biliaminu Salau), Alhaji Jimoh Aromasodu, Alhaji Wasiu Orenuga and Alhaji Nurudeen Kasali.

    In counts one and two, Lamina, sometime in February 2017 in Mowo Kekere area of Ikorodu Local Government, allegedly took over one plot of land forcefully which was sold to one Mrs Ebere Okafor by Ifegbuwa family contrary to Section 2 (1) of the Lagos State Properties Protection Law 2016.

    The action was allegedly carried out by Lamina despite the fact that the sale of the land had been ratified with proof of payment.

    In count three, Lamina was accused of forcefully taking over and remaining in possession of 200 plots of land in Mowo Kekere belonging to Planet Properties Ltd contrary to Section 2 (2) of the same law, while in count five, the defendants were said to have fraudulently sold 60 hectares of land which had been previously sold by the rightful owner contrary to Section 8 (1) (b) of the law.

    The fraudulent sale, which was allegedly carried out in January 2017, was perfected by the defendants fraudulently claiming to be the descendants of Ifegbuwa family. In count six, the defendants were accused of fraudulent selling 25 hectares of land to third parties without any lawful right to do so, an offence punishable under the law.

    After the charges were read to them, they all pleaded not guilty, while their lawyers, Mr E. Obatayo and B.O Abdusalam applied to the court to grant them bail in most liberal terms.

    The lawyers argued that the offences for which their clients were charged are bailable, and that they were ready to defend the case.

    The prosecutor, Ms Mosunmola Balogun from the Lagos State Ministry of Justice did not oppose the bail application but urged the court to impose conditions which would make the defendants available for trial

    In his ruling, Magistrate Lateef Owolabi granted bail to the defendants in the sum of N1million and two sureties in like sum.

    One of the sureties must be a land owner in Lagos, while the other must be a civil servant not below grade level 15. The sureties must have three years tax clearance and registration with Lagos State Residents Registration Agency (LASRRA).

    The Magistrate also ordered the defendants to deposit N150,000 each with the court, while they are to be remanded in Badagry Prison pending when they are able to meet the bail conditions.

    The matter was adjourned

  • Land Grabbing: Suspected kingpin, Sir K , others arraigned

    Land Grabbing: Suspected kingpin, Sir K , others arraigned

    …Remanded In Badagry Prison

    The Lagos State Government Friday arraigned a suspected land grabber, Kamorudeen Lamina (aka Sir K) before a Special Offences Court sitting at Oshodi,Lagos, for  alleged forceful dispossession of residents of their  land.

    Charged with him on a six-count charge by the Special Anti-Land Grabbing Task Force set up by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration were six other men described as his foot soldiers.

    They are: Omotola Ogunsanmi, Samson Shobule (aka Samson Salau), Biliaminu Orega (aka Biliaminu Salau), Jimoh Aromasodu, Wasiu Orenuga and Nurudeen Kasali.

    Lamina,according to counts 1 and 2,is said to have  sometime in February 2017 at Mowo Kekere area of Ikorodu Local Government, taken  over one plot of land from the rightful owner Mrs Ebere Okafor contrary to Section 2 (1) of the Lagos State Properties Protection Law 2016.

    The land is said to have been sold to Mrs. Okafor by Ifegbuwa family

    Lamina is also accused of forcefully taking over and remaining in possession of 200 plots of land in Mowo Kekere belonging to Planet Properties Ltd contrary to Section 2 (2) of the same law, while in count five, the defendants fraudulently sold 60 hectares of land which had been previously sold by the rightful owner contrary to Section 8 (1) (b) of the law.

    The fraudulent sale, which was allegedly carried out in January 2017, was perfected by the defendants fraudulently claiming to belong to Ifegbuwa family.

    In count six, the defendants are accused of fraudulent selling 25 hectares of land to third parties without any lawful right to do so, an offence punishable under the law.

    They  all pleaded not guilty, while their lawyers, Messers E. Obatayo and B.O Abdusalam applied to the court to grant them bail in most liberal terms.

    The lawyers argued that the offences for which their clients were charged are bailable, and that they were ready to defend the case.

    The prosecutor, Ms Mosunmola Balogun from the Lagos State Ministry of Justice did not oppose the bail application but urged the court to impose conditions which would make the defendants available for trial

    In his ruling, Magistrate Lateef Owolabi granted bail to the defendants in the sum of N1million and two sureties in like sum.

    One of the sureties must be a land owner in Lagos, while the other must be a civil servant not below grade level 15. The sureties must have three years tax clearance and registration with Lagos State Residents Registration Agency (LASRRA).

    The Magistrate also ordered the defendants to deposit N150, 000 each with the court, while they are to be remanded in Badagry Prison pending when they are able to meet the bail conditions.

    The matter was adjourned to July 13.

    Speaking to journalists at the end of the proceedings, Chairman of the Lagos State Anti-Land Grabbing Task Force, Mr. Jide Bakare said the administration of Governor Ambode, through the arraignment, was sending a strong message to others still involved in the act of forceful dispossession of property it would no longer be business as usual.

     

  • Family cries out over land grabbing

    Members of the Igbaro Eshinlokun Oteshade royal family of Oko Addo Village, Addo Nla Town in the Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State have called on the state government to save them from people encroaching on their land.

    Members of the family, in a release signed by Prince Malik K.O. Eshinlokun, said: “Some people who claim to be the officials of the Lagos State Government have been illegally allocating our land to individuals, families and corporate bodies.”

    The family said all efforts made to stop these people from this illegality were of no effect.

    They said the Lands Bureau, Alausa, Ikeja “is not directly involved in the allocation of these lands.”

    The release further said: “We got our land through inheritance under the Yoruba Native Laws and Customs from our great grandfather, namely, Igbaro Oteshade of Addo land, who founded the area known as Oko Addo in the Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State.

    “The entire parcel of land was initially about 79,994 hectares. We have been in quiet and exclusive possession of this parcel of land and have been exercising various acts of ownership on the land by farming, building and even alienating portions of same to third parties without let or hindrance. This land has now almost been decimated by these people by way of indiscriminately allocating several hectares of same to individuals, families and corporate bodies.

    “We call on the government to save us from these people as well as nullify the purported allocations which have all been done without due process. We also advise all those who have allegedly acquired our family land through this illegality to vacate same as this land, being our sole inheritance, will be fully protected within the ambits of the law.”

     

  • Abuja residents sue Army chief, minister over alleged land grab

    Abuja residents sue Army chief, minister over alleged land grab

     

    Some residents and land owners in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have sued the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Tukur Buratai, FCT Minister, Mohammad Bello and others over alleged forceful appropriation of plots of land allocated to them.

    The plaintiffs, in the suit filed by their lawyer, Amobi Nzelu want that High Court of the FCT to stop the Minister and other defendants in the suit from further trespassing on plots of land located at Maitama Extension.

     

    Other defendants in the suit marked: CU/2566/16 are the Army Council and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.

     

    A firm, Ogenyi Global Resource‎, who sued for itself and the other land owners  queried the right and powers of the minister to encroach on their land.

     

    The firm and others want the court to order the defendants to vacate the plots of land which they (the defendants) have forcibly occupied without any valid court order.

     

    In the alternative, they want the court ‎to compel the Minister to make alternate allocation of plots of land to them in a choice area in Abuja or award a compensation of N50m as damages for the action of the FCT minister.

     

    In the statement of claim, the firm accused the FCT minister of unilaterally revoking the plots allocated to them without statutory notice.

     

    The plaintiff said the plots of land were duly allocated to them without encumbrances, and that the purported revocation of the land did not comply with the provision of the Land Use Act.

     

    The land owners said they will be willing to accept monetary compensation to show goodwill in the matter.

     

    According to them, ‎the cost of a plot of land in the said Maitama Extension is between N200 to N300million.

    The plaintiff accused the FCT Minister and the Nigerian Army of violently possessing the plots of land about a month ago.

     

    They said that the defendants have no right to take over their lands without any valid court order.

     

    The plaintiffs contended that the defendants could  only exercise the right of revocation for overriding public interest and nothing more.

     

    ‎The case is yet to be assigned to any judge for hearing.

     

  • Lagos bans kidnapping, land grabbing

    Lagos bans kidnapping, land grabbing

    •Neighbourhood Corps get legal backing •Home security guards to be registered

    Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode yesterday put paid to his threat to stamp out kidnapping, militancy and menace of land grabbing in the country’s commercial nerve centre by signing two bills into laws.

    Ambode signed the two laws, entitled: “Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Corps Law” and the “Lagos State Properties Protection Law”, in his office yesterday.

    He explained that it was necessary to enact the law considering recent cases of kidnapping, armed robbery, militant attack and forceful dispossession of land by land grabbers.

    According to him, “I have just given assent to two very important bills: the Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Corps Law and the Lagos State Properties Protection Law.

    “These two bills are very central to our administration’s focus of safeguarding the lives of residents, attracting and growing investments and improving the ease of doing business in our state.”

    He added that the law would equip the state’s security agencies, as the government has created a legal framework to put some form of communal protection in place to boost and support the Police.

    “The Neighbourhood Safety Corps will assist the police and other security agencies within the state to maintain law and order across our communities. It will also be charged with the responsibility of registering all private home security and any other person employed for private home security among other things.

    “One of the issues that discourages investors and hinders the ease of doing business in Lagos is the issue of land grabbing. A lot of our would-be property owners encounter untold harassment from exploitative land grabbers. This law marks the end of the road for such land grabbers.

    “The Lagos State Properties Protection Law will give legal backing to the operations of our law enforcement officers. The main objective of this law is to ensure that our investors, businessmen and the general populace carry on their legitimate land, property transactions without any hindrance or intimidation henceforth.”

    The governor explained that the Properties Law will eliminate the activities of persons or corporate entities using force and intimidation to dispossess or prevent people or entity from acquiring legitimate interest and possession of property.

    Ambode added that it would ensure that the Special Task Force on Land-Grabbers work with all security agencies to ensure enforcement of government and private property rights and ensure proper coordination of the efforts of the various agencies of government charged with enforcing the state government’s rights over land.

    He hailed the efforts of the House of Assembly’s members and the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, for their determination to move the state forward.

    Ambode urged Lagosians to obey the laws and join hands with the government in ensuring that the rule of law is enthroned.

     

     

     

  • Family accuses bureau chief of ‘land grabbing’

    FAMILY in Imota in Agbowa-Imota Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State has petitioned the House of Assembly, accusing some top Lands Bureau officials of land racketeering.

    In the petition, their family’s lawyer, Mr Gbenga Ojo, alleged that the officials led by the bureau’s Executive Secretary, Mr Kayode Ogunnubi, were conniving with people to sell part of its land.

    The petition claimed that 20 hectares of land was excised to the Balogun Branch of the Refuwe family of Imota in 2008 by the government.

    The petition reads: “In 1980, Lagos State Government acquired a large tract of land in Imota. Some of the land so acquired belonged to our clients, but after a series of meetings and consultations, the government through a letter dated 21 January, 2008, released 20 hectares of the land to the family and the government’s decision was further confirmed in the state  gazette No 2 Vol. 41 of 28 February, 2008.

    “Subsequently, all manner of people came on the land claiming that they purchased various portions of the land from the Lagos State Government, through the Ministry of Lands and Environment. Some of them even gave our clients copies of Certificates of Occupancy purportedly issued by Lagos State Government.

    “Investigation by our clients revealed that there is a strong and powerful cartel or syndicate in Lands Bureau led by Mr. Ogunnubi, the Executive Secretary, Lands Department that is behind all these atrocities.

    “On 17 February, 2016, a combined team of Governor’s Monitoring Team and Task Force with several armed mobile policemen invaded the land with the intention to arrest, detain and prosecute our clients in order to intimidate them from asserting their ownership of the land released to them by Lagos State Government.”

    Reacting, Ogunubi said the land was acquired by the government, adding that the Refuwe family was compensated like other families.

    He claimed that the family was trying to reclaim the land for which it has been compensated.

    The bureau, he said, wrote to the government, when the family started attacking the rightful owners of the land.

    On the basis of the letter, he said, the government sent the task force to the land.

    Ogunnubi said the government was aware of the matter, which he stated that he inherited.

  • 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.