Lukman Olabiyi, Lagos
Justice O S Adeyemi of the Oyo State High Court has granted an interlocutory order restraining the Ajingba family, their agents, heirs, successors, privies and assignees from the land popularly known as Aruka/Oguntade near Odo-Okun, Ibadan, pending the determination of the suit they filed.
The family which is being represented by Sesan Bolaji Olooto, Kehinde Apampa, Lamidi Oyewole Ajingba and three others were the claimants in numbered 1/258/19 pending before the court.
While defendants in the suit are Ganiyu Aruka, Tajudeen Aruka, Joshua Oguntade and 16 others.
The order of the court follows an application filed by one of the defendants in the suit, Mr Joshua Oguntade through his counsel, Mr Oladapo Ogunwusi.
In the application which was filed on June 10, the applicant prayed the court for an interlocutory order to restrain the claimants pending the determination of the suit
In an affidavit in support of the application, the applicant averred that the claimants had continued to carry out various acts of aggression on the land like violently attacking residents, uprooting pillars, destroying buildings with the police refusing to take any action, and illegally selling to unsuspecting members of the public, land that was still under litigation.
The applicant also accused the claimants of being land grabbers with the intention of taking the land forcefully.
Oguntade annexed the application with several exhibits and documents to show proof that the
the application was worthy of emergency treatment and it had merit.
Among documents presented was case numbered M/682/19 in which Olooto, Apampa, Ajingba and three others were claiming fundamental rights enforcement for being arrested for alleged crimes on the land.
The claimant had initially approached the court for damages of N10,000,000 (ten million naira)
for trespass and an injunction restraining the defendants for further trespass.
In the said suit, the claimants in their statement of claim said that their ancestor migrated from Ipapo to Ibadan before settling at the site in dispute.
However, Oguntade in his affidavit disclosed he had purchased and occupied the land for 42 unbroken years, undisturbed, selling part of the land and using part for agricultural purposes, before people he described as land grabbers invaded the land recently, attacking the villagers with weapons and allegedly selling the land.
Oguntade exhibited purchase receipt, agreement (dated 1977), registered survey (dated 1990) among other documents. He stated he had even pursued a Certificate of Occupancy to an advanced stage pleading correspondence between him and the state ministry of lands.
The court has fixed October 7 for further hearing on the case.