Army Officer Snubs Lagos Taskforce on Land Grabbers
Wale Igbintade
The Commanding Officer, 174 Battalion Nigeria Army, Odogunyan Ikorodu, Lt. Col. Seyi Sholotan, has again failed to appear before the Lagos State Taskforce on Land Grabbers over the ownership of a landed property.
Colonel Sholotan is locked in a dispute with Adewole Adeleye, an engineer, over the ownership of a piece of land on 2-3 Bashorun Street, off Haastrup Street, Alagomeji, Yaba, Lagos.
Adeleye had petitioned the Taskforce following an alleged invasion of the land by Sholotan with soldiers on more than three occasions.
The Taskforce, in a letter by its coordinator, Owolabi Arole, had first invited Sholotan to a hearing at the Meeting Room of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice Annex on March 23, 2022, but the military officer was absent.The hearing was adjourned until April 13 to enable Sholotan to attend.
Again, on April 13, Sholotan was absent and did not send a representative or write to the panel to apologise for his inability to attend.
Arole said another chance would be given to Sholotan to appear. The panel adjourned until May 11, 2022.
Adeleye urged the Army hierarchy, especially the Chief of Defense Staff, General Lucky Irabor, to intervene in resolving the matter.
Adeleye, who said he was the valid owner of the land with a registered title at Alausa, had in March 2021 also reported Olorunimbe to the Force CID Alagbon for alleged encroachment.
Olorunimbe was invited for questioning by the police and was later released on bail but has not reported to the police again since then.
However, insisting that he owned the land, Sholotan said he validly bought it from Olorunimbe in 2017.
The Army officer admitted that he went to the land to remove the gate himself and fix his and did not assault anybody with soldiers in the process.
“The land is mine. I paid for it. I have the right to own property,” the military officer said.
On why he shunned the Taskforce invitation, he said: “Until my division tells me to report to any task force, I will not honour any invitation.
“That last invitation by the task force, I was in Port Harcourt. I will not report to any task force until my division tells me to do so.”
He also asked Adeleye to go to court to prove his ownership of the land.
