Christopher Oji
The Shitta Arikuna Olowojawona family in Orofun village, Akodo Ibeju Lekki local Government Area of Lagos has sent a Save-Our- Souls (SOS) to Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Inspector-General of Police , Mr Mohammed Adamu to intervene over the lawful invasion of their land.
The family alleged that a powerful man who invaded the community had started laying foundation on the land and had also started selling potions of the land to unsuspecting buyers. The family posited that aside the illegal encroachment and sale of their ancestral land, the powerful man and his cohort had resorted to brazen threat to their lives after the sale of a portion of their land and presented them with the sum of N170,000 which they rejected.
Speaking on behalf of the Shitta Arikuna family moments after a petition to the state governor which was copied to th IGP on the resort to threat to life vide the use of dangerous weapons including guns and cutlasses by thugs hired by the man, Mutalabi Haruna, said the large expanse of land belonged to their great grand father named Olowojawona who had two children also named Arikuna and Oloro. He added that before the demise of Olowojawona, he shared the land in question equally between the two children who now have extended families for which he is a part.
He maintained that everything was going on well with both families until sometime in 2017 when they noticed a signboard on their own portion of the land and a handful of workmen in a bulldozer plowing. “We approached the man who seemed to be the leader of those on the land and he said he was acting on behalf of the powerful man . We made him understand that the land on which he was working belongs to Shitta Arikuna Olowojawona family and though the land had been shared equally between the children and the portion he buried his signboard belongs to the Shitta Arikuna family.”
Continuing, Haruna said:“When we discovered that all our explanations fell on deaf ears, we approached the Citizen Mediation Center (ADR) under the Lagos State Ministry of Justice Epe for a peaceful resolution since we all come from the same primogenitor but the man in question refused to honour the invitation even as they continued the sale of our land.
“In 2019, we approached Lagos High Court, Epe and obtained an interlocutory injunction restraining them from further trespass on the land but they disregarded the valid court order barring them from carrying out any activity on the land pending the determination of the substantive suit before it.