26 Arrested Over School Land

The Lagos State Taskforce on Environment and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit has begun massive clampdown on suspected land grabbers, known as Omoniles, by arresting two of them and 24 labourers for encroaching on a school land in Ojo area of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

The omoniles, Alhaji Muyinu Kazeem and Mr Idris Kazeem had allegedly invaded the premises of Ojo Junior and Senior Secondary School and Community Agric Junior and Senior Secondary School in Ojo and were using labourers to fence off a portion of the land before they were arrested.

There had been complaints and petitions against land grabbers encroaching on school lands across the state, with the government vowing to bring to an end such act.

The principals of the affected schools in Ojo had petitioned the government over the unlawful encroachment on their schools, while the taskforce were directed to move in and arrest the intruders.

The two omoniles and 24 labourers were brought to the Taskforce office at Alausa, Ikeja and paraded, while the two omoniles would be charged to court for gabbing government’s land.

Taskforce Chairman, Supol. Bayo Sulaiman told P.M.NEWS that his men acted swiftly based on complaints that some people were erecting structures on the school land, saying that 26 people were arrested, out of which two claimed to be owners of the land.

According to the letter being paraded by the omoniles to claim ownership of the land, it was discovered that the Surveyor General Office had spelt out to them that the land in question is under acquisition by the government.

The taskforce chairman urged members of the public to always conduct adequate search before they engage in land transaction as government frowns at anyone who encroaches on its land.

One of the omoniles, Muyinu Kazeem, who claimed to be speaking on behalf of the Oluwo Opeseyi Family, said: “we own all the land in this area and we gave part to the Agric people to build schools. We obtained Land Survey from the Surveyor General’s Office.”

Unknown to Kazeem, the document he was brandishing had a clear stamp on it, saying “this land is under government acquisition.”

Sulaiman said the two omoniles would be arraigned in court and found guilty they would be jailed to serve as deterrent to others.

—Kazeem Ugbodaga