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| Abule Tisa |
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| Ajambata village |
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| Church in Ajambata destroyed by suspects |
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| Pa Albert Omoniyi,97years old |
Ajagungbale,
Land
grabbers sacked villages
For
the people living in Abule Tisa ,
Abule Ajambata, in Ogun state , the fear of
land speculators [aka Ajagungbale]
is the beginning of wisdom for them . Taiwo Abiodun who visited the two places reports Two villages in Ogun state have
been deserted. They are Abule Tisa and Abule Ajambata . According to the villagers they are
constantly attacked by hoodlums and land speculators with the connivance
of some fully armed to -the -teeth policemen while some of the village heads have
deserted the places to avoid being killed .
When The
Nation visited the villages the
villagers were all in sad
state .While some are crying that their land had been confiscated others are
crying that they would soon lose their
farmland to land speculators . In fact some
are afraid to come out from their houses
for of being attacked .Others are
crying that land grabbers are unleashing
terror on the land they inherited from
their forefathers and had been living for long .While the villagers lamented
that their cash and food crops had been demolished by land speculators in order
to take the land from them. They also wept over what they called ‘unnecessary police protection’ of their enemies by the Nigerian Police.
‘’This is not the first or second time this
is happening to us ,
the land speculators are always
here to harass , and kill us and this is a trying period for us ‘’, the Baale of Abule Tisa , Folorunsho Soetan,67,
said in tears , he continued ’’ they
have almost killed everybody here, while others were sent packing we have
refused to leave this place , for it belongs to our forefathers .But because
this is a virgin land , and we are rich in cash crops these land grabbers have eyes on our land and
are disturbing us ’’.
According to the villagers, trouble
started in the early hours of
April 12 when about 40 hoodlums and fully armed Mobile police men
invaded the villages and sent the villagers packing .Properties and farm produce worth thousands of naira were destroyed . Not only this , the only church in the village ,St John’s Anglican Church has
its big decorated glass reduced to
smithereens while the plastic chairs
in the church were also
destroyed. Some of the mud houses
had their wooden doors pulled down . Apart from this,
many of the villager were wounded a
result this many fled for their dear lives as they
ran into the bush for cover .
The
two villages have about 42 houses made up of mud bricks . While Abule Ajambata
has 18 mud houses excluding the only church ,
the St John’s Anglican Church , Abule Tisa also has about 24 mud houses .These villages have been under
constant attacks for some time . ‘’We are attacked both day and night because our villages
are far away from the town or city and they are in the belly of the bush so one
could unleash terror without anyone taking notice.
Narrating the episode Mrs Cecilia Adeyemi ,60, a native of Ajambata
and a peasant farmer said ’’ it was like a movie .It was around 4am on
April 12 when armed to the teeth Mobile policemen and the hoodlums struck. They beat hell out of
the old people who have no energy to run and the young ones caught unaware’’, Mrs
Adeyemi stated . . According to her
she has been suffering in the hands of the hoodlums who come there to
seize their farmland .’’I don’t know the type of government we have , we are
not safe .Some of the land grabbers come in almost all the time asking us to
leave our village and relocate. We asked the reason of which they cannot
provide the answer. At times they would come with fully armed to the teeth
policemen and from SARS to humiliate us
.Recently , they invaded this village
and destroyed our properties .The only church we have here has its chairs destroyed , they went into our house one after the
other, pulled down the wooden doors ,
beat some of the old people here up while others fled into the bush for
safety.’’
Another victim Akanji Ayeleso , 62, said he
had been farming and living in the village since he was young and the hoodlums
had been coming to their farmland since three years ago asking them to leave
the village as they want to use the
farmland. They said they are land grabbers , ajagungbale and needed the
village. He narrated his ordeal ‘’ sometimes ago about 30 t0 40 armed police
men among them were Mobile police
officers who covered their faces with shield came to the village in the
early around d 4am.They beat both the
old and the young to a coma while some sustained injuries others fled and those
who cannot run were beaten .They said
they are from SARS and were mobilized to do the shady job to evacuate them from
the farmland Another night they came and took the generating plant we are using
in the village to pump water from the bore hole. The even promised to come back
anytime again as they said since the place is in the bush nobody could do
nothing to them.
Now the villagers had gone extra mile to
defend themselves in case they are
attacked again, said Kayode Falola ,’’ Now it will be
blood for blood . We are now after the policemen and the land grabbers. I swear many will go
mad if they dare come to disturb us and since we
don’t enjoy any security from the government therefore our destiny is in our hands . We have been
fair enough not to kill anyone of them but they keep on being using Police to
harass us for nothing sake. The cheating is too much .We have
used trees to block the entrance to the
village .If we heard any sound of vehicle coming we would quickly know
that enemies are coming and will be
ready to deal with them ’’, Falola said
Felicia Odunayo said this is not the first
time of invading the village , she said ‘’ about three years ago , the invaders
came , brought caterpillars and started
bulldozing the place and they confessed that it is not their land but wanted to act as
it was theirs as it was being done in the olden days .They said they would like to conquer the place and take it as
conquest .They said they are backed by the Police and would sack us when they
are ready’’.
Odunayo narrated how her husband was killed ‘’ The hoodlums smashed my husband’s head when he was sleeping in the midnight .They removed
four of his teeth in the year 2009, that was how he was sent into his early grave. Now , this
people have come again and boasted that
no newspaper will report the story and that they had gagged the press, yet we
are surprise that no print media or electronic media carried it. Three weeks
ago they were here again and they
expended their bullets on us and destroyed many things’’ .
Mrs.
Omoseeni Azeez in
tears narrated how
she saw her 70 year old mother
was macheted to death
while sleeping in the early
morning of 2009 by the same hoodlums. She said’’ I came here with my newly born baby for my mother to assist me to nurse, but in that early morning some hoodlums who called themselves land
grabbers were led by one Mutairu Owoeye came in and used cutlass to hew my mother
while sleeping , and that was how she bled to death. She was
buried amidst tears. I cannot leave this place for I was born and bred here and I married
here too. Where am I going?. I don’t
know what the government is doing to
rescue us from these people .We are not safe here’’.
For
Madam Dorcas Omotunde, 70, [aka
aya Oluwo] she is fed up with
the harassment and intimidation the
police and the land grabbers have been
unleashing on them, she said ‘’ I have been living here for long , I am 70 years of age. I don’t know that it is way we are going to be living.
Recently I was preparing my fufu
for sale when the hoodlums came to
unleash terror on us around 4am . I could not run but the little energy in me was used
. I could have
been dead by now if now God that saved me.
Rotimi
Akinde said he would never forget in a hurry how his younger brother
Idowu was killed by these thugs who came into the village to kill some of the villagers .I have been looking
for ways to leave the village but as a farmer , how would I leave my farming job
again and at what age? I don’t know what the government is doing at all. For
these people would bring policemen from Sango Police station at times from the
SARS just because we have no access to
the press and we are p
Pa Albert
Olawale Omoniyi, 97, said he is fed up living in Abule
Tisa .’’ I am weak and tired and I am
already old .I retired from the Custom s Service as senior Clerical officer in
1977, and had since then retired to my village, farming. Now, we are
asked to vacate this village .The land grabbers who
called themselves ajagungbale
would come with armed –to- the- teeth Mobile
Police men from Sango and SARS in Lagos to unleash terror on us .They do this
because this place is far away from the town , and in the bush and government’s presence is not felt here at all
and no government security comes here yet we fall under Otta Local government ‘’.
However, the villagers alleged one Chief Mutairu Owoeye is the man behind the trouble as he
brings thugs there
everyday to unleash terror on
them .’’ I was
born and bred here , I retired and came back to my farming in my own
village. This is horrible as the suspect, Owoeye brought Mobile
policemen and thugs here recently and beat a hell out of my
people. Owoeye asked us
to relocate and go to another place saying that
he needed the land. It is a pity the man has connection all over Lagos and has never been arrested with all the
crimes he had committed and this is
unfair to these village’’. However, the
septuagenarian counseled Owoeye to learn from the late
Ejigbadero who in the 70s was a notorious land grabber saying the man eventually ended in gallows .
’’This is exactly what
Ejigbadero was doing until nemesis
caught up with him. I wish Owoeye
stopped all his evil deeds before it is too late, and the federal
government too should probe into the
activities of these policemen who are being used by these land speculators.’’,
Omoniyi stated.
Pa Oluremi Odunayo the Baale of Ajambata
said his people are being disturbed always , ‘’ now I
just learnt that some of my people were taken away again to the police
station. We are being terrorized always .I
am 84 years and I am not happy at all. I
am appealing to the state
government to come into the matter, it is very urgent ‘’, he said .
But they are not
faceless human beings, where are the thugs staying , investigation
reveals that the thugs live in between the two villages .When The Nation visited the bungalow , he was
advised not to go beyond his boundary as they are wielding all manners of arms
from pen knife, axe to guns .’’There is a man that finances them, he is from Egun in Badagry and in his early 6os.He is called Mutairu Owoeye,
and he has backing from the police and uses his
connection all over to do whatever him.If
the federal government and state government can come here they will see all
what we are talking about.
Investigations revealed that Owoeye does
his ‘job’ as land protector in Ogun and Lagos states .In Mushi-Oginjo Community of Ikorodu
and Shagamu Local government he was
alleged to have once attacked the community members with armed policemen to take their land .
A
developer /surveyor Teriba Adetunji of Kaatson Associates said the man, Owoeye, was once a carpenter by profession before he joined Almoroof Estate and company , later he went to float his own
company and had been seizing other
people’s lands. ‘’He uses policemen to deal with people , he has a lot of court cases , but due to our government’s style and method he is always set free and had never been
detained for he has connections all over
the place . He goes to places like Igbo Olomu in Ikorodu, Oke Igbodo, Oko Omi in
Ota,Ijere, Oniyanrin etc, there is a video clips to show his
atrocities .
However, in an effort to stop using the
Police to harass the community members a letter was written by Falana & Falana’s Chambers to the Police
Headquarters ,Abuja to
intimate the Headquarters of
how the SARS they
are being used to terrorize the Mushin
–Oginjo Community of Ikorodu
and Shagamu local government areas
by Mutairu Owoeye, Kamoru Lamina, Adebola Kajubo,
Nurudeen Sanni, Rasheed Kaaji, and Akeem Alabi., the letter was dated August
25,2009.
Another letter was written to the Police
Headquarters , Abuja by His Royal
Highness Oba Olatunji A.Oriyomi , the
Alatan of Atan informing the headquarters on how Mutairu Owoeye and his people are terrorizing them
over their land 27th July and 24th August 2011.
Investigation revealed that the land grabbers have extended their nets to Badagry where the
villagers are crying over what they claim as wicked .
Defending himself
, Owoeye denied all the allegations
leveled against him and said that he is a complete gentleman and does not believe in either disobeying the
court orders or flout the laws of the land . ’’ I am a law-
abiding citizen. I don’t kill, and I don’t
have arms and ammunition .I defend the weak and the defenseless. The fact is that truth
will always prevail. I help those
oppressed over their land to
fight injustice. When a man obtains a judgment over his land I will help
him safeguard the land ,that is what I
do and I have been in this business for over 22 years .If there is court judgment my company will assist the winner to protect and sell .But, you see, when the loser comes
to me asking me to give them portion
I will refuse , that is why they keep on mentioning my name . ’’
On the issues concerning his being known
all over Ogun and Lagos states as a thug and land grabber , he replied ‘’ I am not surprised, it is the nature of my
work .I hate cheating and that is why I am always on the side of the cheated ones and I assist them. If a client has no
document to support the ownership of a land I will not go there for I will not
defend a cheat or an illegally acquired land . I will not do dirty business , but if
my client has all the necessary documents I will work for him.
The lands of Ajambata and Tisa did not
belong to those who claimed to be there, those occupying these places are illegal occupants and they had been
advised to leave but they refused. They killed one David Ogbolu and that
provoked me , it is the villagers who
have thugs and guns . I did not have
guns , I have told them to vacate the places for they are not the rightful owners of the land ‘’
Owoeye admitted that he has clients all over Ogun state, ‘’ I have
clients in Agbara, Aja, Atan, Mowe and many other places .I am not a thug. I am
doing a legitimate business and I have never been arrested for murder
as these land grabbers or false owners are saying .’’
However, when The Nation got to the Land and Survey Bureau , Abeokuta some of the
officials testified that land grabbers are in Ogun state terrorizing the
villagers .’’It is unfortunate that Police are being used to terrorize innocent
citizens while the state and Federal
government could not say a word’’, the
officials said but directed this reporter to the Special Adviser on land
Matters ,Okemosan, but the Commissioner
was not in the office when The Nation called.
When the Ogun state Police Public
Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi was
contacted, he denied ever hearing of such.
He advised the villagers to get the names of the policemen who are being used and said they should account
for their deeds if the story is true.
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| Village Head of Abule Tisa, Soetan |
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