Save us from violent land grabbers – Ogun community cries to Obasanjo, Abiodun

By Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuta

Residents of Isofin community in Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State have appealed to former President Olusegun Obasanjo to save them from impostors, who deviously use his name to intimidate and harass them over their ancestral land.

The Community who lamented that they have been under the siege of land grabbers in the last two years said the perpetrators often bully them with their acclaimed connection with “Baba,” and appealed to him to save them.

The residents who claimed that the land grabbers were being aided by some security personnel, said they stormed their community last week ostensibly to make alleged dubious arrest and called on Governor Dapo Abiodun and the Ogun State House of Assembly to, also, come to their rescue.

The Baale, Isofin community, Prince Simiolu Oyekehinde who spoke to reporters at the weekend, said the land grabbers had been terrorising them for over two years and had continued to encroach on their lands.

Prince Oyekehinde said the land grabbers invaded the community with armed policemen in the early hours of Wednesday and harassed the village chiefs with a threat to arrest them if they resist the land grabbers from working on their land.

He alleged that the invaders came with thugs and attacked the village chiefs who resisted the illegal sales of their lands.

Also, Chief Dada Majekodunmi, a community leader alleged that a certain identified Sheye has been using Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s name to cause crisis in the community.

Chief Dada alleged that, each time police arrest the invaders, the said Sheye usually secures their bail as quickly as the suspected land grabbers were arrested by the Police.

He, therefore, appealed to the Governor Abiodun and the State Commissioner of Police to provide adequate security for them as their lives are in danger from the land grabbers.

“They came around on Wednesday with policemen, they said they are from Eleweran, and Abuja and have been boasting that they know people and cannot be arrested, even if they were arrested, people will come to their rescue to bail them out.

“There is a boy called Sheye. He has been bragging that if the land grabbers are arrested he will come to the station and bail them out. Because he used our father’s name, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ) that one of his junior brothers know about the land issue.

“We are now appealing to our father, because we are from the same Owu kingdom. So, we are calling on our father, with due respect to call on these invaders to stop encroaching our land because people are suffering. People are using your name to terrorize us in our Town.

“They have been harassing the Baale, there was a time they took him Ifo police station, he spent a night there, they took him to Alagbon zone 2, he also spent a night there, he was invited to Abuja and on getting there, there was no record of him being invited. They wasted his money.

“We know their system; they will want to frustrate you. We are now appealing to the governor of Ogun state, His Excellency, Prince Dapo Abiodun to come to our rescue. We are also calling on the speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Oluomo and we are calling on the Rep member, Hon. Isiaka Ibrahim to come to our rescue. We are handicap, we are powerless. They are ready to use our land sell it and use it to fight us back which they’ve been doing, before you know they grab the land overnight and put a fence.

“They went to the Iyalaje of the town and harass people there and they went to the Akogun of the town and did similar thing there too. At the moment we are not very comfortable with the way the police is operating.” (The Nation)