Railway refutes alleged plan to cause religious crisis in Osun

By Cosmas Omegoh, Lagos

The management of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has debunked an alleged plan to cause a religious crisis in Osun State over plots of land allocated for some residents of the state.

It said that bringing a sectarian angle to the matter in the social media was the handiwork of mischief makers, adding that it had ordered an immediate investigation into the matter, and contacted all the parties involved with a view to resolving any issues.

The NRC management in a joint release issued with its subsidiary, the Railway Property Management Company Limited (RPMCL) recalled that “the report alleged that ‘NRC officials were taking steps to convert a piece of land already granted to the Muslim community for use as a Muslim prayer ground for the use of one Pastor Solomon.’”

It noted that ‘the Management of NRC/RPMCL wishes to clarify the very grave allegations levelled against the officials and to bring to the notice of the general public that the social media reports did not in any way portray a true picture of the issue at hand. The Management is therefore clarifying the purported allegations as follows: The Management of Railway Property Management Company Limited wishes to categorically state that the issue in contention is between two temporary allottees on Railway land who have a misunderstanding over boundaries. Efforts have been made to resolve the problem with no success.

‘A piece of land measuring 20m2 was allocated to one Lateef Oriade on a temporary permit in 2015. Another piece of land measuring 56m2 was allocated to one Bukola Solomon in 2016 and both allottees have been occupying the space since 2015 and 2016, respectively.

‘In November 2021, one Imam and his son came and complained about an attempt by someone wanting to claim the land. The Area Manager in trying to resolve the issue went with the complainant to the said site. On getting to the site, the manager discovered that the land in question was the one allocated to Lateef Oriade which the Imam claimed that the land was transferred to him even though there was no evidence to back that claim.

‘The Area Manager discovered that the space being occupied by the Imam is 372m2 as against the 20m2 on the letter of allocation to Lateef Oriade. But the Imam claimed that the space allocated to them is 372m2 and the 56m2 allocated to Bukola Solomon. The Area Manager further directed that both the Imam (representing Lateef Oriade) and Bukola Solomon should apply for the regularisation of their allocation since the allocation in their possession is a temporary permit which they both promised to comply.

‘However, instead of them applying for the regularisation, the Area Manager received a report that the two tenants continued their disagreement over the matter. To this note, the Area Manager gave both of them a six months revocation notice due to their refusal to reconcile and comply with the directive to regularize their stay.

‘For the avoidance of doubt, we do not have any record of allocation to any Imam, Muslim community nor any pastor, as such, the claim to incite any religious crisis might be the handiwork of mischief-makers. In any case, management has ordered an immediate investigation of the matter and has already contacted all the key parties,’ the statement read.