My Ordeal: Pastor claims his life is under threat by those who want to dispossess him of his inheritance
By JACOB EDI, Abuja
Monday, March 27, 2006

Rev. Fagbote Photo: Sun News Publishing

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For Rev. Johnson Fagbote of The Apostolic Church ministries, life is filled with ups and downs.
Physically challenged, this man of God began to see life in a different way after his father’s death. Being a Yoruba man, he inherited all his late father’s properties as the eldest child. So what the rest of the children got was at his discretion.

According to him, he became a proud owner of about 20 plots of land which his late father, Chief Boboye Fagbote of Ise Oluwa estate in Akure, Ondo, willed to him in 2002.

But trouble started in 2003 when he wanted to sell off some parts of the land. The man of God said he discovered that some of the plots had been sold out illegally and without his knowledge by a non-member of the family.

“The whole problem started sometimes in 2003. I wanted to sell some of the plots. So, I had made arrangements with the buyers. On the day I was to finish the transaction, I discovered that some people have bought the land from another set of people who are not my family members,” Rev. Fagbote narrated.

According to him when this happened, he tried to see how the problem would be resolved through the elders of the community but to no avail. “I tried everything to resolve this problem but nothing happened and I think it is because of my natural condition.

As you can see I cannot move up and down normally and may be that is why these people have been using the opportunity to share my right with me,” he said.
Rev. Fagbote alleged that those after his life include a naval officer who pulled down four houses already built without information and without court order.
“Since then, these people have been harassing my life by taking me to police station, only for police to collect money from me and send me home.

“But all these they do cannot stop me from asking for my right. In fact, at a point they sent two men who told me that if I will not keep quiet and stop asking for that land, I will lose my life and they went away.”
Since the traditional way of settling such land disputes in the village did not solve the problem, the man of God said he had been to the court to seek legal redress yet no reprieve has come his way.

“Now, almost all the lands shared to me in my fathers’ property have been taken over, these are the reasons I have to run to the press to save my life, and I have been to the Human Right Commission, and I even sent a petition letter to the Inspector General of Police (Police IG). Let Nigerians save my life from the hands of those that are above the law in Nigeria,” the man of God pleaded.