Ogun State government has said it would not tolerate the activities of land grabbers and vowed to deal with anyone found culpable.
The commissioner for information and strategy, Alhaji Waheed Odusile, gave the warning in Abeokuta, the state capital, yesterday.
He said the government will not take it lightly with anyone claiming the ownership of another person’s land illegally.
Odusile said, “The activities of land grabbers are not welcomed in Ogun State. The government will not take it lightly with anybody found to be involved in maiming or grabbing of land, they would be dealt with according to the law.
“Governor Dapo Abiodun has said it clearly, and I’m reiterating it, that the law would be used to deal with anyone threatening the peace of the state. So, if it is land grabbers that are threatening the peace of the state, they will be dealt with through the instrumentality of the law.”
Odusile’s comment was coming on the heels of recent activities of some alleged land grabbers, who were said to have invaded Adumbu community in Ewekoro local government area of the state with about 50 thugs, injuring two people and beating up the village head.
It was alleged that a notorious land grabber, invaded the town with thugs armed with dangerous weapons and chased people away from their homes and ancestral lands in the community.
The residents of the community in a “Save Our Soul” letter to the police titled: “Case of Conspiracy, Threat To Life and Invasion of Adumbu Village By Land Grabbers,” and jointly signed by an elder in the village, Dr Dele Onatade and the secretary, Chief Ranti Falola, asked the police to come to their rescue.
They alleged that the land grabber and his cohorts had been terrorising and threatening the peace of the community for over 10 years, since 2013 when they invaded the village and sacked the entire community including the late village head, Chief Olalekan Ogunjobi over 4,000 hectares of land.
The residents said the land grabber who was earlier declared wanted by the police, ran away, only to resurface this year to continue his land grabbing activities, by first trying to take over the possession of seven acres of land meant to build primary school for the community and later claiming the possession of other people’s lands.
According to the residents, all efforts by the new village head, Chief Kayode Falola, to restore peace was thwarted by the land grabber when he allegedly led thugs to a block-making factory owned by the village head, beat him to stupor and arrested him with the aid of some police men allegedly from Zone 2, Headquarters, Onikan, Lagos.
Speaking on the matter, Falola alleged that the land grabber also went with his thugs to attack the secretary of the village, Chief Ranti Falola, at his house, manhandled him and tore his cloth before they dragged him into the same police vehicle they put him in and drove both of them off to Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos.
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