Magodo and the Scare of Landgrabbers

The recent attempted invasion of Magodo Phase II Shagisha by landgrabbers, who were on a mission of dispossessing some residents of their properties, is a wakeup call on government to enforce laws that protect investors, especially senior citizens. Yinka Olatunbosun reports

Imagine that you are 80 years old. Your children are all married and have left home. Your aged spouse is confined to a wheelchair. You hardly have visitors except for the cleaner and maybe the newspaper vendor. Then came a knock on the door. A bailiff just arrived to serve you a quit notice in your own house. A judgement of the Supreme Court is said to be enforced.

The above scenario may seem scary but may be true as in the case of residents of Magodo Phase II Shangisha who recently mounted a resistance against what was believed to be an illegal takeover of their properties last week in Lagos.

Residents, visitors, workers and service providers were stranded inside and outside the estate as the Magodo Residents’ Association restricted entry into and exit from the estate to prevent the landgrabbers under the guise of court bailiff from dispossessing residents of their properties. There was a lot of confusion and many could not access their offices. Kenny, a Lagos-based curator said she had to work out of office for three days.

The estate is predominantly populated by former public servants and retired civil servants some of whom had been residents for over thirty years. At the moment, the estate is governed by the New Towns Development Authority (NTDA), an agency of Lagos State government.

This agency was established in April 1981 through the Lagos State Government Official Gazette Extra-Ordinary No.19 Volume 16 to effectively implement the planned growth of Lagos State, in order to decongest Metropolitan Centre and ensure even development of Lagos State towards the North West, Southwest and Lekki Axis.

Meanwhile, the Magodo Phase II land was said to have been acquired by Lagos State under the military. The story was that a group of families under the name Adeyiga had contested the right of Lagos State’s ownership in court and eventually the matter reached the Apex court.

According to the Chairman Board of Trustees, Magodo Residents Association, Prof Ayodele Francis Ogunye, a professor of Chemical Engineering, the residents had faced harassments by landgrabbers called omo onile for many years before the judgement of the Supreme Court in question.
“They are to be given 549 plots. That judgement did not say 549 plots in Magodo. The Lagos State government allocated plots for them in Badagry and Ibeju Lekki. About 300 of them had taken those plots but these people continue to harass us.

“I have been to Alagbon three times this year on this particular matter. Just yesterday morning, they (the landgrabbers) came in to enforce the judgement of 2016, I think,” he said while fielding questions from journalists at the entrance of the sealed gate.
It was reported that law enforcement agents armed with guns had arrived at the estate to enforce a Supreme Court judgement, marking houses with an inscription which reads ‘ID/795/88 possession taken today 21/12/2021 by court order.’

“The bailiff ought to wear uniform or jacket,” Prof. Ogunye continued. “They just went to hire some area boys. I was with them till 5pm yesterday before I went home. There were about 50 law enforcement agents that came. The senior instructor that followed them claimed that they were acting on instructions from the top.

“Our legal adviser talked to them, asking for the copy of the judgement that they were trying to enforce. They showed a press release instead. We believe that Lagos State government has to do something about it because they were the ones challenged to court, not the residents. When they came they were marking houses for repossession.”

Meanwhile, the Shangisha Landlords Association has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) alleging that some residents of Magodo are parading fraudulent Certificates of Occupancy.

The Chairman, Shangisha Landlords Association, Chief Adebayo Adeyiga has reportedly claimed that any Certificate of Occupancy issued after 1998 when the judgement was passed is null and void.

“We are aware that Governor Babatunde Fashola did not sign any C-of -O neither did Governor Akinwumi Ambode following the judgement. So, how did the present occupants of Magodo get the C-of-Os? We have done our audits and have found over 600 C-of-Os that are fraudulently obtained,” he said.

To further give perspective to the matter, the Attorney-General of Lagos State, Moyosore Onigbanjo revealed that the case dates back to the demolition of properties at Shangisha village between 1984 and 1985, after which a supreme court verdict ordered the state to give the Shangisha landlords 549 plots of land as a “matter of first priority”.
Onigbanjo, however, said the verdict of the supreme court only relates to “allocation” and not “possession” of any land.
The NTDA office has not released any official statement on this matter. However, a source confirmed that the Lagos State government has allocated several plots of land to the Oyeyiga family in Iberekodo Scheme, Ibeju Lekki and Magotho Residential Scheme in Badagry and some of the claimants have refused, insisting on Magodo land.
Many Lagos State residents who had lived over 30 years prefer to buy lands and build houses in their home towns to avoid being dispossessed of their property in Lagos due to the menace of landgrabbers.

Also, it has been a common phenomenon for senior citizens, who are often times retired public servants, to petition the Lagos State government over the issue of landgrabbers.

In response to this development, the LASG on Monday, June 27, 2016 set up a taskforce to check the menace of land grabbing in the state, just as it vowed to tackle the activities of ‘omo onile’ (landgrabbers) with the full deployment of resources of government and applicable law once and for all.

Anyone that uses the threat of arms or physical threat to dispossess people of their legitimate property will be treated as criminals in accordance with sections 52, 53 and 281 of the Criminal law of Lagos State.

The section 281 of the criminal law included land as things capable of being stolen while sections 52 and 53 of the law prescribe a jail term of two years for any person who forcibly enters or takes possession of land in a manner that can likely cause a breach of peace against a person entitled by law to take possession of the land.

The law is created to protect investors and maintain law and order through the verification of legal claims through litigation rather than violence.

The taskforce is under the watch of the Lagos state Attorney-General and it is the expectation of every land owner in Lagos that his right of ownership will be protected and guaranteed under the law, especially in his or her old age.

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They are to be given 549 plots. That judgement did not say 549 plots in Magodo. The Lagos State government allocated plots for them in Badagry and Ibeju Lekki. About 300 of them had taken those plots but these people continue to harass us

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