By Christopher Oji
It was lamentation for house owners and residents of Wood Island Estate,Ishawo, Ikorodu, Lagos, as suspected land grabbers, allegedly accompanied by armed Soldiers,Policemen and thugs demolished over 100 buildings in the area.
Over 100 houses at different levels of completion were allegedly demolished late last year and the owners have been prevented from gaining access to their land.
The house owners, at a press conference yesterday,in Ikorodu,condemned the demolition of their houses without prior notice or order from a Court of competent jurisdiction .
Some of the land owners, claimed that they have been in the area for over 20 years without disturbance until late last year,when they were chased away from their property.
They have appealed to the Lagos State Government and Inspector General of Police ,Kayode Egbetokun,to ensure that the perpetrators are not only prosecuted, but made to pay for the demolished buildings .
Some of the aggrieved house owners, stated that some of their colleagues,who are in the Diaspora are yet -to- be notified about the situation in the area .
One of the house owners,a retired civil servant , Sanni Gerard, said:” I am a retiree. I have a land here, which I bought in 2014. Suddenly, I had a call that someone had come here to vandalize the place. So, I decided to come to this place to verify the news that I just heard. When I came, I discovered that my property has been completely destroyed. The annoying thing was that before I was able to enter the Estate , I was asked to see some boys who were on ground. I was made to pay N l3,000 and after payment,they still did not give me access to my land .
“So,I came in because I knew what I wanted to do. I came in and I checked. They said I should go and see their leader, Olotu. I went and met him. He asked if I have a land here? I said, yes, and he asked if I have any document to show that I have a land, I said, yes and brought out my receipt, but he said that the receipt is no longer valid .
“They claimed that the new owner is Alhaji Sule,but they didn’t give us his phone number and they have failed to show us any court order .
“ The man said, if I still want the place, I have to go and pay additional money. I said, to who? I said, well, you have destroyed my property and I would still pay additional money to who? He said, that’s none of his business .”
Chairman of the Community Development Association in the area ,Adekunle Adeiga and one of the house owners at Wood Island Estate also stated that,”We are here because of the property destroyed at Wood Island. Because I am the overall chairman of all the CDAs in this area .
“Around September last year ,we had people coming in, they said they were taking over from the people that were there before.
“We are community leaders. But after a while, I made an enquiry with them. They told me they were coming down and that this is their father’s property, but no Court order or any document.
“After some time , I noticed that people were coming to complain to me that they are destroying some houses at Wood Island, which I called even the chairman that is even representing here and all of them denied knowing any thing.
“ I don’t know how they got it done. But at the end, what I noticed was that all the lands, the buildings were destroyed .
“ The houses that were here should be at least, the ones that I knew, the uncompleted and the completed ones should be over 50 or 70.
“ The reason they gave was that they got an injunction from court that they are now the new owner of the land, which I requested even the community at a meeting at Oke Oko, requested for the court papers but they could not present any .
“ Many times ,we asked for the order or any document from the court,but they kept telling us that their lawyer would present them to us, but later the lawyer told us that he was not in possession of any court paper .
“When the lawyer came,about two weeks ago, he told us publicly at Oke Oko meeting that they were not with judgement. But they believe they would win the case”.
Eniran Orisan ,the coordinator of the Arugbo Odo /,Aboki Lawal family ,who sold the land to the affected house owners ,however, insisted that he was not aware of any court order against his family .
He stated that the Arugbo Odo / Aboki Lawal, were as far back as 1904, adjudged by the Supreme Court of Nigeria as the rightful owner of the whole of Owutu and that they had been in possession since then .
He, however ,commended the intervention of the Police authority in Abuja for the intervention so far,which has led to the arrest of two persons through the Inspector General of Police Response Team ( IRT) .
He noted that the sponsor of the demolition ,who had boasted of having the police in his pocket had prevented the police at the Lagos State Police Command ,Zone 2 Police Command ,IGP Monitoring Team and FCID ,Alagbon, Lagos ,from making any headway with their investigations .