The Adesada Oganiugbe family of Igbooye, in Eredo Local Council Development Area of Lagos State, has commended the Area Commander, Area J Police Command, Nigeria Police Force, Mrs. Yemisi Ojo, for her dedication, commitment and non-partisan service as an unbiased umpire in the ongoing dispute over the Otara land matter in Igbooye, as against the open support displayed by the Divisional Police Officer of Noforija, CSP Gregory Ikpekhia, to land-grabbers/hoodlums, even after the death of the leader of the gang, Mr. Abdul Rasaq Rafiu.
The family, in their statement of commendation made available to Human Rights Monitoring Agenda (HURMA), said that they got information about the death of Rafiu on Thursday morning and arrangements to bury him on the Otara land belonging to the Oganiugbe family despite several petitions and pending court cases against the group, even as some of them are still standing trial for criminal charges at Ogba Magistrate’s Court, Lagos, while the jeep of the leader of the gang was impounded at State Command, Ikeja.
It was learnt that the family was contemplating informing the DPO of the development but the DPO deployed the head of the Tactical Squad attached to the division to provide cover for the land grabbers in their illegal activities on the land, as they dug a grave to receive the corpse. Tension filled the environment and it took the intervention of military personnel in the town to prevent an outbreak of violence. The military advised the parties and the Tactical Squad to go to the DPO for resolution, as they did not want the issue to degenerate into communal clashes.
According to the delegation of Adesada Oganiugbe family, led by Alhaji Abdulganiy Salaam, who is the Chief Imam of the community, the DPO threatened them that they would not go back home again and he would transfer them to Zone 2. The Chief Imam said, they were not worried, since that was the same way the DPO detained the family secretary, Mr. Idris Salami on Friday, September 15, 2023, based on false allegations of bunkering activities against him. He alleged that the DPO was conspiring with and supporting the land-grabbers, wherein Ikpekhia stationed the patrol van of the division and men on Otara land. The family said the land-grabbers’ bulldozer destroyed corner pieces, fences, foundations and other structures on the land that belonged to the Oganiugbe family.
Salami was later transferred to Zone 2 on Monday, September 18, 2023, detained and taken to court on Tuesday September 19, 2023, but the Directorate of Public Prosecution declined arraignment. To the surprise of the family, the four-count charge later discovered to be on land and had nothing to do with bunkering activities despite the DPO claiming that there was convincing evidence and video clips testifying to the involvement of Mr. Salami on bunkering.
The Chief Imam lamented that the argument continued until the family’s lawyer came around and several personalities called the DPO to order before he later transferred the matter to the Area Command.
After the Divisional Crime Officer of Noforija Division, who led the parties to the Area Command, gave reasons for the referral, the Area Commander listened to both parties and directed that the corpse should not be buried on Otara land since there was a dispute on the land and criminal cases pending in court. She further directed that they should pursue their cases and if they eventually won, they could exhume the corpse wherever it is laid and bring it back to the land. The family thanked the Area Commander, ACP Yemisi Ojo, for the directive.
Secretary of Oganiugbe Family, Mr. Idris Adebanjo Salami, as a law-abiding citizen, had, in September 13, 2023, written a petition to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 2, upon which the DPO conspired with the land-grabbers to frame him up for involvement in bunkering activities and detained him. The petition by Mr. Salami was later approved by the AIG and one of the culprits, Shina Adebisi, was charged to court at Magistrate’s Court 18, Igbosere, Lagos.
They were unable to apprehend the acclaimed leader of the group, Rafiu, and others, even though the OC, Legal, later went to court on December 1, 2023, to withdraw the case without the knowledge or consent of the nominal complainant who was in court with five witnesses.
The family is now appealing to the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, to use their good offices for the protection of members of Adesada Oganiugbe Family, particularly, the secretary, who had continuously been harassed, intimidated and victimised by the land-grabbers/hoodlums and the DPO.
For instance, the family was reliably aware that the lawyer to the land-grabbers, S.S. Shittu, who was supposed to pursue the case of criminal charges against them at court 20, Ogba, and investigation being carried out by the office of Special Task Force on Land Grabbers, Alausa, wrote false, frivolous and spurious to the AIG, Zone 2, in December claiming that the State Command illegally impounded the vehicle of the leader of the land-grabbers, arrested some of his brothers and mechanic, which necessitated the Zone 2 command to demand the transfer of the case that came to the State Command on the directive of the IGP, already pending in court.
The head, Mr. Oluwatosin Emmanuel Adewunmi, and other members of the family, therefore, plead with the IGP, AIG, Alagbon, and, particularly, Zone 2, Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, and Area Commander of Area J Police Command to help call the DPO of Noforija, his men and the land-grabbers/hoodlums to order as regards the continuous harassment of family members on their land, as they are boosting of attack on members of the Adesada Oganiugbe Family, particularly, the secretary, who have done nothing contrary to the law.