Iyana Ilogbo Land Crisis: Why we called peace meeting – Baale Igbusi

The traditional ruler of of Igbusi Tuntun community in the Iyana Ilogbo area of Ogun State, Chief Temitope Shita has explained the reason behind a meeting called over the land crisis in the area.

The traditional ruler said that the people of Igbusi TuntunI invited residents of the area to a meeting to sensitize them on the development on a vast expanse of land, which was released to thirteen villages by the Ogun State government.

The Igbusi Tuntun community leader said that the alarm was raised to create fears and paint some people bad by some people in order to distort the legal arrangement of the Ogun State government on a large parcel of land that was released to thirteen communities from the land acquired by the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).

Chief Shita described the reported planned attack on Iyana Ilogbo as nothing but a “false alarm“ and urged the Ogun State government and the state police commissioner to properly investigate those who raised the false alarm.

Shita said that the false alarm might not be unconnected with the attempt by the people of Igbusi Titun to call the attention of residents to the activities of some unscrupulous villagers, who were selling a portion of land, despite a court order and against the directive of the Ogun State government.

The traditional ruler said: “The Ogun State government had released 61.738 hectares of land to the people of Igbusi and issued the community with a Certificate of Occupancy No 0032596 dated 19/3/2011 delineated and described in Survey plan No LC5610 {OG} “

“The land was released from the large expanse of land which the Lagos University Teaching Hospital had acquired a long time ago, following the intervention of notable personalities in Ogun State.”

He listed the names of the communities that were beneficiaries of the released large expanse of land to include: Igbusi, Ayede, Pakoto, Abule Oke, Ojusango, Abule Orile, Ilepa, Mosafejo, Onihale, Ajibode, Ogan, Adurodekun and Fagbayi, adding that nine of the communities, including Egbusi had been issued with Certificate of Occupancy .

The Ogun State community leader however expressed surprise that some people, under the aegis of Abudu residents not only defied the intervention of the Ogun State government but also ignored a court order which prevents anybody from selling the land.

Baale Shita said: “we wanted to take possession of the portion that was released to our community but we discovered that some people were already selling parts of it to unsuspecting members of the public. That was why we decided to call the attention of the people to the development. .

He continued that “one of the people, who represented us during the signing of the Power of Attorney is dead and we have only replaced him with Alhaji Owoeye. He has not invaded the land as claimed.

“We invited the residents to a meeting to let them know the situation of things but some people did not want them to see the true situation of things, hence they told them not to honour our peace meeting. We have the necessary documents from the Ogun State government,“ the community leader added.