Land grabbing: Oke Egun community seeks Abiodun intervention over illegal occupation
Bankole Taiwo, Abeokuta
Oke Egun community via Iwelepe in Sagamu local government has called for intervention of Gov Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State over the illegal occupation of its stretch of acres of farm land by people suspected to be land grabbers
Speaking on behalf of the community to journalists on Friday, Otunba Kayode Howells, the Personal Assistant to Ewusi of Makun, Sagamu, Oba Timothy Akinsanya in whose domain the community falls said that the illegal activities of these land grabbers was already threatening the peace of the community.
Otunba Howells said “we were in the palace when the youths and other residents of the village storm here to register their displeasure over the activities of some people they don’t know from anywhere. They said these people came in with soldiers and started bulldozing their lands, clearing everywhere and saying that they had acquired the land from the state government.
“The people of the community said they could not believe this lie because they were surprised that government could go ahead and cede their land to anyone for whatever reason without informing them or even their traditional ruler, the Ewusi of Makun, Sagamu.
“After this report, the Ewusi sent some delegates to the village and they met these people that could not be described less than land grabbers, these people came with soldiers shooting sporadically to scare the residents away. It should be noted that this is the village of Orungba family ruling house where the incumbent Ewusi came from.
“Shortly after this, the Ewusi, Oba Timothy Akinsanya went to the village with some police officers to see things for himself. On getting there, the Ewusi met some police officers and the Area Commander said that those officers and Kabiyesi should be coming to his office to see him but the officers absconded on the road, they didn’t follow Kabiyesi to see the Area Commander, so we suspected that they were on illegal duty
“After some days, these people were back on the land with soldiers. The news flying around now is that these people are now claiming to have gotten the acquisition right from the government to build a private school. But if something like that will happen, the original owners of the land would be contacted by the government, even those acquiring the land will also meet the original owners of this land and see how to gain their support and approval by way of compensating the people they want to displace from their ancestry home.
“It is against this background that we are begging Gov Dapo Abiodun to please intervene because this issue is already threatening the peace of that area and we really don’t want any trouble for our people. The governor should please help us confirm if indeed these people have genuine acquisition because we are very well aware of all manners of illegal acquisitions”.
