8th September, 2015
YUSUF MUHAMMED
Muhammed Liadi Cole family of Alaagba Village, Ipaja Road, Agege, Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, have sued Mrs Elizabeth Fanope a.k.a. Queen of the Coast, a former staff of the Lagos State Ministry of Lands and 11 others for N25 million for trespassing on their land.
According to Mr. Rasaq Cole, the representative of the Cole family, the land was registered as No. 25, page 25, volume 204 at the Lands Registry, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos with Deed of Conveyance dated 18 June, 1926.
In the suit with No ID/9405/15 filed at the Lagos High Court on behalf of the family by Bisi Ade Ademuwagun, it was alleged that Mrs. Fanope, who was a senior staff at the Ministry of Lands, Lagos State, sometime ago floated Alaagba Residential Scheme fraudulently in order to defraud the Cole family of their land and unsuspecting members of the public without the knowledge of her employer, the Lagos State Government.
The scheme, according to Mr. Rasaq Cole, was illegally used by Mrs. Fanope to allegedly defraud members of the public of their hard earned money, adding that all investigations as to the existence of the scheme at the Lagos State Ministry of Lands have so far shown that nothing like that exists, yet Mrs. Fanope and her cronies have allegedly continued to develop the land with connivance with two top officials of the Ministry of Lands, Alausa, Lagos.
The land is dispute was said to be owned by Akapo Agba in 1900 which he was using to cultivate economic crops, build houses, letting of portions to various people, alienation of portions to sundry people.