30th December, 2014
Kazeem Ugbodaga
Officials of the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit on Tuesday morning reclaimed N2 billion Estate seized by suspected land grabbers in Gbagada area of Lagos, southwest Nigeria.
Armed taskforce officials led by their Chairman, Bayo Sulaiman, CSP, stormed Gbagada at about 10am and immediately took over the seized estates while suspected thugs fomenting trouble in the area fled.
The estate was built by Stardust Estate Limited after purchasing the property from the Lagos State Government in 2007 with a bank loan of over N1.5 billion.
Suspected land grabbers seized the property from the developer, claiming it belongs to the Oloto Ruling Family after using thugs to sack the developer from work.
A court judgment showed that the High Court of Lagos had restrained the Oloto Family from encroaching on the land being developed but the family allegedly ignored the judgment and sacked the developer.
Taskforce Chairman, Sulaiman said Stardust legally acquired the property, which is about 27 plots from the government to build an estate and obtained C of O for the property.
He said further survey carried out by the Surveyor General’s office showed that the land in question did not belong to the Oloto ruling family and that the Attorney General of the State, through the Solicitor General had written to the Oloto family to stay away from the land, but that the family refused and took over possession of the already built estate and put the houses in it up for sale.
Sulaiman added that the Oloto family waited for the company to develop the estate before grabbing it illegally, putting it up for sale and harassing buyers who had already purchased 4-bedroom duplex from Stardust living in their apartments.
Several vehicles belonging to the Oloto family found on the piece of land were towed away by the taskforce as some people were arrested in connection with the matter.
Dr. Akin Akinmokun, Partner, Stardust Estate Limited, lamented that the bank where the money for estate was borrowed was already on the company’s neck to pay back, saying the company lost about N2 billion due to the activities of the land grabbers.
He described the situation as pathetic and wondered how a family could lay claim to a land that did not belong to it.
He appealed to the state government to expedite action on the takeover so that the company could be allowed to complete the estate project which is still half-way through.