Scores of residents of Alaja Phase one, Alaja Phase two, Isagunna and Aponmode communities in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State have staged a protest over alleged forceful eviction from their property by some individuals.
The residents who are landlords and landladies in the communities recently stormed the premises of State House of Assembly to register their grievances.
The protesters, while speaking, explained that their homes have been invaded by someone who claimed to be the real owner of the lands in the communities.
The residents alleged that Mogaji of Akinsola family compound in Ibadan, Chief Wale Oladoja has invaded their communities in a bid to evict them. They say they have been occupying the said lands for decades. They added that they were surprised to hear that someone has got a court injunction to evict them from their properties.
The protesters, who took a save-our-soul message to the entrance of Oyo State House of Assembly Complex, appealed to the lawmakers to rescue the people of the communities from Oladoja who had sealed off their houses since Wednesday.
A community leader, Rauf Adeogun narrated that they were summoned to a meeting that those who bought land from our forefathers, would buy the land again from the original owner which is one of the lineages of Akinsola family.
He said, “And our father had warned us not to forcefully take back land already sold because Labi was owned by four lineages of Akinsola which are: Oju-Oyo, Oje, Idi-kan and Labiran, so the Labiran family is now the one disturbing the residents.
“We had been to the Olubadan to seek for the resolution of the matter and Olubadan had warned the ‘land grabbers’ not to forcefully take the land from the owners”.
A member of the state House of Assembly representing Akinyele constituency 1, Lekan Abiola in his reaction, promised to call Oladoja to hear his own side of the story.
The lawmaker representing Akinyele constituency 2, Kehinde Olatunde said that the 9th Assembly promulgated anti-land grabbing law which indicated the interest of the State Government in stopping land grabbing, noting that this present Assembly will not allow land grabbers in the state and will make sure they face the full wrath of the law.
“The 9th Assembly was the one that promulgated the law of anti-land grabbing and the House is not taking it lightly at all. Because we found out that the land grabbers migrated from Lagos State to Ogun State and from Ogun State to Oyo State. And we are not going to take it, even the governor will not take it.
Oladoja, in his own reaction, said that the family acted on the court judgment obtained in 2001 by the Akinsola family who is the real owner of all the lands in Labi to take back their land.
“My Family acted according to the law of the land, because we have four to five judgments in respect to the land they are talking about. We had held peaceful meeting with the residents of the community several times, even our respected Imperial Majesty, Olubadan of Ibadanland, Ọba Mohood Olalekan Alli Okunmade II had scheduled a meeting with us for the resolution of the same matter.”
