Onigbongbon Property Owners Bemoan Illegal Demolition by Lagos Taskforce

By Funmi Ogundare 

The Chairman, Nigercat Nigeria Limited, Alhaji Akeem Osuolale, has expressed dismay over the activities of the  office of the Chairman Lagos State Taskforce on Traffic Offence, CSP Shola Jejeloye, for carrying out an unlawful demolition at Peace Estate, Wasimi Onigbongbo, Maryland Lagos State, without a court order.

The team had allegedly stormed the site with hoodlums to cart away valuable materials being used at the project site and with heavy earth moving machinery, including tractors and swamp buggy excavators with which they not destroyed properties belonging to Lagosians.

 Osuolale, who is a  property owner in the area, told journalists that his properties destroyed, when quantified were over N1, 000,000, 000.

“They did not only demolish my buildings, they came with cutting tools and carted away all the meters and other valuable items on my land,” he said, adding he was not served any legal document to warrant the demolition. 

“I was not invited to justify my ownership of the properties. All I saw was a demolition exercise with just ordinary utterance that they were acting based on order from above.  He also alleged that CSP Jejeloye had come  to his property in company of a young lady to lay claim to the same property with documents which showed Survey Plan No. OGEK/018/77 dated January 12,  1977,  Deed of Conveyance dated the 29th day of March 1978 executed between the accredited representatives of the family who originally owned the land. 

The the legal document, he noted, is between Ilubamito branch of Wasimi family, as seller and Mrs. Dorcas Aduke Ogunseye, as buyer. Findings reveal this was registered as No. 65A on page 65A in volume 1694 of the register of deeds at the Lagos State land registry, Lagos State.

He  called on the intervention of Lagos State government, Commissioner of Police, Attornev General, Bureau of Lands Service, Department of Public Prosecution ( DPP) Land Grabber, Ministry of Physical Planning as well as the Ministry of Environment and Drainage Control to look into the matter and  bring to book the perpetrators and alert the public that the only body saddled with the power to demolish building or structures are the physical planning authority, Office of the drainage control and as well as a valid court of competent jurisdiction.

“We wish to state and inform the public that the listed organs are not aware of the demolition. it was an outright taskforce incursion into land matters.”

A resident of the area, Mustapha Abubakar whose property was also affected said he was taken unawares and told to leave the premises without any prior notice, shortly before the demolition.

The Balogun of Onigbongbon, Alhaji Tajudeen Ajao Irawo, said the land belongs to the Iluobi family said the taskforce team  do not have a right to demolish the properties, adding that if anyone is contesting a property, they can go to court.

A lawyer, Eyitayo Abiodun, regretted that those who were supposed to be custodian of the law, are the ones taking laws into their hands.

” It’s so unfortunate that men of the taskforce are carrying out demolition. If someone has told them to lodge a fictitious petition, which is even baseless to carry out demolition, it behoves them to call parties together and ascertain the situation of things. But when they go to a construction site to carry out massive demolition, it calls for questioning.

Whose interest are they really representing? Are they representing the interest of people who have paid them to reclaim people’s land?”

He described the demolition as outright lawlessness, while calling on the state government to call its men to order.