Family Petitions Ogun Govt Over Activities Of Land Grabbers

The Shotoye Alakaloko family of Alakaloko Town in Olomore community of Abeokuta North local government area has petitioned the Ogun State government to rescue them from the ongoing activities of suspected land grabbers, threatening to dispossess them of their ancestral land.

The family in the petition addressed to the state’s attorney- general and commissioner for justice pleaded for urgent government intervention against what it described as “persistent harassment and criminal takeover” of its ancestral land by land grabbers.

In the petition, signed by the village head, Baale Alakaloko, Chief Nurudeen Sulaima Alakaloko and dated 11th of September, 2025, the family pleaded that the state’s attorney-general should invoke the appropriate section of the Ogun State Laws, which stipulated a 24-year jail term on anyone involved in the forceful takeover of landed property anywhere in the state.

LEADERSHIP Friday recalled that the administration of Ibikunle Amosun had, in 2016, signed a law imposing a 25-year jail term for the forceful takeover of land anywhere in the state as part of its efforts to protect landowners and citizens from violent and fraudulent activities related to land ownership.

The law also included provisions for a N5 million fine or 10 years imprisonment for placing agents on land for forceful takeover and a death sentence for armed robbery or kidnapping resulting in death.

Disclosing that repeated efforts towards resolving the matter peacefully were met with threats and further harassment, the Alakaloko family, however, urged the state’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice to invoke the sections of the law against eight (8) individuals identified as: Alhaji Ibrahim, Jaola Saheed, Mufutau Shittu, Sarafa Akindele, Saheed Oladipupo, Ibrahim Adedapo, Feyisara Odunlami, and one other who had allegedly been occupying and using arms to intimidate the family each time they visited the property.

The Shotoye Alakaloko family further stated that they have long-standing ownership of the land dating back to “time immemorial,” adding that two court judgments—the Trial Court and the Court of Appeal in Ibadan—had affirmed their title to the property. Certified copies of the decisions and the family’s registered survey plan were reportedly attached to the petition.

The family expressed fear that without swift intervention, the situation could escalate, insisting that only the Attorney-General’s directive to the State Task Force on Illegalities could halt what they described as a coordinated attempt to “reap where they did not sow.”

They urged the state government to uphold its track record of curbing land-grabbing activities and protecting citizens from armed encroachers.