Lagos State Government Official ,Land grabbers, hoodlums, sack Lagos community ..As women, children take to the streets

While many families across the world were felicitating and rejoicing during the last Eid-el-Fitri celebrations, that could not be said of residents of Ebute Iga Palapo community, near Ibeshe, in Ikorodu Local Government Area of Lagos State.

On a day their compatriots were winning and dining with their loved ones and cooling their heels during the two days holiday declared by the state’s government, men, women and children of the community took to the streets to protest alleged invasion of their community by suspected land grabbers,hoodlums and a particular staff of the Lagos State Land ministry Mr Onipede , a GRA!! Scheme officer attached to the seat of Government at Alausa Okeja and some policemen, making life unbearable for them.

It was reported that a couple of days before the holidays, about four suspected hoodlums allegedly invaded the community demolishing houses and beating occupants of affected structures.and also threatening to kill them as at last count, about eight women were  reportedly  wounded and currently hospitalized  over injuries sustained in the hands of the hoodlums ,police and suspected land grabbers.

It was also reported that before the hoodlums departed the community, they threatened to carry out more demolition in the community before long. Some of the residents later told this  writer that the hoodlums, who were believed to have been sent by a self-acclaimed Staff of the Government Ministry, still issued warning to the residents of a much more frightening attack on them if they did not do their wish. Hence, the Save Our Soul protest staged by the community during the week.

During the hoodlums’ invasion, it was reported that about 11 buildings were destroyed while property worth millions of naira were also destroyed. In a petition, signed by 40 landlords of the community and sent to the Inspector General of Police, the Lagos State governor, the state’s police commissioner and made available to this reporter it was alleged that one Saheed, Onipede who claimed to be an agent of the state’s government, had in April 2012, approached and invaded the community where he and his boys allegedly marked all buildings there for destruction on the pretext that the land in question was illegally acquired by the landlords.

The petition read in parts, “In August 2012 without prior notice, apart from the verbal one by Saheed, he came with two armed policemen and four fierce-looking thugs  armed with sledge hammers  and demolished some buildings. He later threatened others whose building were not affected by this initial demolition that he would come back to demolish more buildings except we come to see and ‘settle’ with him.” The said Saheed had reportedly demanded six million naira from each of the house owners.

All house owners shortly after the agent’s mark on the property approached the family who sold the lands to them. It was reported that the land owners asked the confused landlords to negotiate with the agent, claiming that they could do nothing to help them.

A twist was, however, added to the whole story when one Mr Ayeni appeared from the blues to claim that the land actually belonged to the late T. O. S Benson. The said Ayeni with all valid documents to the land, claimed that he represents the socialite’s family on the matter, a story reportedly later confirmed by the landlords. Ayeni, who had long been away from the country while the said Asajon family sold the lands to the people, reportedly approached the Ipakodo Police Station to prevent the hoodlums from invading the property again. Some of them were detain icluding Saheed Onipede and later released after they had promised not to encroach on the Land again.

A naval personnel who is also a landlord in the area, Mr. Sunday Igho, was first to speak on their experience in the hands of the suspected land grabbers and armed hoodlums. According to Igho, “The hoodlums have made lives worthless for us all and our depend ants. My aged mother was almost killed with fear when the hoodlums started demolishing houses and beating anyone that attempted to stand in their way,” Igho said.

Another visibly shaken landlord, Mr. Akeem Esivue narrated how he and his family had been living in fear and unable to go out of the community for fear of being attacked. Esivue claimed that his and other children in the community now found it hard to attend schools because of the perpetual presence of the hoodlums in the community, wielding dangerous weapons.

An Islamic cleric, Alufa Ismail Akewula, another landlord in the area, told this re[prter that his family has been thrown into untold hardship by the hoodlums. Alfa Akewula claimed that his means of livelihood in Ebute Metta, Lagos, now suffer as he is unable to go out of the community since the invasion of the hoodlums.

A housewife in the community, who craved anonymity, also told Saturday Mirror that her husband was critically injured while struggling with the land grabbers from demolishing their house. In the words of the woman, “It all happened like one was in a dream. We were relaxing in front of our house one afternoon when about four hoodlums and two policemen stormed the community demolishing any building on sight. While my husband got up to prevent them from touching our house, one of the thugs just smashed a hammer on his shoulders and my husband has been in the hospital since then,” she said.

In a telephone chat with the said Saheed, he denied ever sending ay hoodlum to beat residents if the community. According to Saheed, residents of the community had refused to act on several government’s approaches that they be integrated into the state’s housing policy scheme which he claimed he oversees. His words, “How on earth would anyone send thugs to attack women and innocent children? This claim must be the figment in the imagination of its peddlers,” he said.

In his own comment, Mr Ayeni, who claimed he already had a fruitful discussion with the landlords, maintained that the family that sold the land to them erred ab initio because the land did not belong to the family, but his late principal.

When this reporter visited the  Ipakodo Station a Policeman on duty confirmed the Story .The man even said thre case has been transferred to the zone11 police Command at Onikasn .
Meanwhile ,an  official petition has been sent to the Lagos State Government to save them from the activities of Saheed Onipede and his hired thugs.