Group warns against use of Obasanjo`s name to seize land

The Movement for Islamic Right and Justice (MIRAJ) has warned against us of the name of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to seize people’s properties in Ogun State.

The call was supposedly targeted at some suspected land grabbers in the state who had been seizing people’s land on the pretext that they were carrying out the orders of the former president.

The group, in a petition written to the Ogun State government and signed by National Secretary, Barrister Segun  Daud and  General National Legal Director, Barr. Kazeem Adedeji, also said there were attempts by some people suspected to be land speculators to implicate residents of Adekoyeni and Ajambata villages, along Sokoto Road, Atan – Ota, Ogun State in the killing of people within the village and use of Corpse to set up members of the village for murder case purposely to inherit their communal.

In the petition, MIRAJ said it wrote on behalf of the Baales (local chiefs) of the two villages. It accused the land grabbers of use of the names of the former President Obasanjo  to seize land unjustly at Adekoyeni, Ajambata, Araromi Orita and Oluwanishola (a.k.a Abule Teacher) villages.

“It is a common practice among the land grabbers to create confusion in and around the community by depositing corpse at the villages or rob the members of the villages with gun for murder or robbery, purposely to have their way into the communal land.

“Once this is done, they immediately contact their sponsored police officers within the area to raise false alarm, get the villagers arrested, detained them and further get remand order in perpetuity before the magistrate Court which does not have jurisdiction on capital offence”.

“Defenselessly, the agents have turned the villages to their base, and it is beyond the power of the villagers to confront the land grabbers especially with aids and supports of most influential personality within and outside Ogun State. The new trend of event is the use of soldiers to harass, humiliate and physically assault the village heads”.

While giving background information to their plight, the group said, “Suffice it to say that the background circumstances giving rise to this petition was that on Sunday, 31st July, 2016, at about 7:30 p.m, Some unknown thugs (10 boys and 2 ladies), led by one Sunday Oladele, acting under the authority of the above-listed agents, sneaked into the boundary between Adekoyeni and Ajambata villages, with a Varagan Bus, Lagos colour yellow, with registration No: SMK 983 XR, to deposit a female corpse at the boundary of the villages”.

“This was done purposely to set the villagers up and fortunately for the villagers, the thugs were cited at the point where

the corpse was to be buried at the boundary. The villagers immediately challenged the thugs and two (2) out of the thugs escaped while others

were arrested through the assistance of Saver High Way Police Officers, with their Team Leader known as Inspector Alade”

“Shockingly, all the arrested thugs were released the following day and a further petition was written to the Commissioner of Police, AIG Zone 2, DIG Force Headquarters and Inspector General of Police. The CP has assigned the case file to Homicide Section and Five (5) out of the culprits/thugs have been arrested, two were released on bail while three(3) are currently in police net”.

MIRAJ, therefore, called on Ogun State Government to take a step, like Lagos State, by passing a law criminalising the conducts of land grabbers state.