Lagos Swoops On Land Grabbers

The Lagos State Taskforce on Environment and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit has commenced a clampdown on suspected land grabbers, popularly known as Omo Onile, by arresting 26 people for encroaching on land belonging to a school in Ojo area of Lagos, southwest Nigeria.

The land speculators, 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 attempted to fence off a portion of the land before they were arrested.

In recent times, there had been several complaints and petitions against land grabbers encroaching on schools’ premises across the state.

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

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

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

According to the letter being paraded by the land grabbers to claim ownership of the land, it was discovered that the Surveyor General’s Office had informed them that the land 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 frowned at any

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

Unknown to Kazeem, the document he was carrying had a clear stamp on it, stating that the land is under government acquisition.

However, Sulaiman said they would be arraigned in court and prosecuted.

—Kazeem Ugbodaga