By Christopher Oji
Members of the Oyetubo Jokotade family of Eti-Osa, Sangotedo, Lagos, yesterday, protested at Government house, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos State, over the occupation of their land.
The family members, who picketed at the Government House gate, called on President Bola Tinubu and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to wade into the matter and to stop further encroachment into the land.
The protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as “Stop disobeying court order”, “Attorney-General of Lagos State should obey existing court order” and “Lagos State Task Force should respect court order and leave our land”, said they were at Alausa to brief the governor and the Lagos State House of Assembly on the disobedience of court orders by the Lagos State Task Force and a group of people who illegally occupied their land.
According to them, despite two different interlocutory orders by the court, the defendants were still working on the land, measuring about 212 hectares, which was allocated to the Oyemade royal family in 1996.
Speaking with journalists in Alausa, head of the Oyemade family in Eti-Osa, Sangotedo, Baale Jamiu King Akinsemoyin, urged the governor to order the trespassers to vacate the land belonging to his family and respect the rule of law.
He said: “I respectfully call on the governor to, please, tell his people to vacate our land, because we don’t want bloodshed and I don’t want our people to take the law into their hands.
“Despite court orders, the invaders being aided by the Lagos State Task Force are still working on the land, whereas we the defendants are obeying court orders. I want our President to prevail on Sanwo-Olu to order the task force and the defendants out or the place,” he said.
Also, Mr. Saliu Tajudeen, a member of the Oyemade royal family, noted that the protest was to call the attention of the President and the governor to intervene in the matter because people who did not have respect for court orders were tarnishing all the good things they were doing in Lagos.
Tajudeen stated that: “We obtained an interlocutory injunction as far back as eight years asking all parties to stay away from the land till judgment, and we got another one not too long ago.
“Recently, we held a protest on the land but, to our surprise, they went back to the land and started working there. We went back to the court and got another restraining order that everybody, included the invaders and police, should keep off the site. Yet, they are still working there.
“We are giving them seven days to stop work on the land and, if they refuse, we shall take the matter to Abuja.
“The company that is building on the land is ASO Savings and Loan. They are leveraging on the fact that their former solicitor has become the Attorney-General of the state, that is why they are using power on us to continue working there.
The governor should, please, tell his people to obey the court.”
Barr. Tope Odeniran, a solicitor to the Jokotade Estate Resource, noted that the Lagos State government, the Attorney-General and some of his agencies and individuals were defendants in the matter in question.
He said: “Despite the two interlocutory injunctions obtained by the claimant against the defendants altogether, it is shocking that the defendants, with the help of the task force, are still in the land.”
Odediran added that the first order restraining the defendants from doing anything on the land was obtained in 2018 and another one was issued on November 22, 2023.
“So, we are calling on the governor to ensure prompt intervention in this matter to prevent breakdown of law and order and to prevent anarchy.
“The matter is already before a court of competent jurisdiction and we have submitted to the court and are pursuing the matter, and we cannot take the law into our hands as they are doing,” he said.