Residents Panic As Nigerian Army Allegedly Harassed And Take Over Their Land

Residents Panic As Nigerian Army Allegedly Harassed And Take Over Their Land

Residents of Mesiogo Estate in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, have called on the government to come to their aid over the  continuous harassment and threat from men of the 2nd Division, Nigerian Army, Odogbo Ibadan who have allegedly been laying claim to their parcels of land.

The resident revealed that a letter directing them to evacuate their belongings latest tomorrow, Monday, November 26, 2018 by the Nigerian Army was giving them sleepless night.

Spokesperson of Mesiogo community, Mr. Amos Ishola, while addressing journalists on Sunday, remarked that the claim by the army that the land in question belonged to them was a ruse, stressing that the Nigerian Army was trying to circumvent ongoing court processes.

Ishola added that the Army’s letter entitled, “Final quit notice of possession of Nigerian Army land at Adekunle Fajuyi cantonment Ibadan” dated November 12, 2018, demanding hundreds of thousands from landowners in the community was another grandstanding effort to take laws into their hands and use coercive power on “bloody civilians” living in the area.

A letter written to one of the landlords, Mr. Yinka Oyeniyi, by the Army authority and signed by EM Mafuyai, a colonel on behalf of the GOC, 2 Division, demanded that the affected landlord should quit within 14 days of receipt of the letter or be ready to pay an amount to the Recovery Committee of the Nigerian Army at Adekunle Fajuyi Cantonment, Ibadan latest November 26 (today) or risk being “forcefully ejected from the land and all rights of allocation made to you shall be revoked.”

Ishola, while speaking further, said the Nigerian Army was hellbent on wrecking the helpless and hapless citizens and further subject them to undue trauma by their latest letter.

He urged President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on the military authority to abide by the law and allow the ongoing matter to be dispensed with in the spirit of equity, justice and fairplay.

Ishola said, “Many of us are jobless. We are not taking up arms and we are helpless and harmless but we still have our right in a democratic dispensation; our rights to fair hearing, justice should not be taken for granted. We are already before the court of competent jurisdiction and they should allow equity, justice and fairness to prevail in determining the matter purely on its merit.

“They have their claim and we have our own claim too, let the court decide the matter on its merit. We are a set of defenceless people and we don’t want any trouble visited on us and our family members.

“We procured all the necessary documents for acquisition development of our property and they were duly registered with appropriate authorities. it is with both the state and local government. Some of us had C of O signed by a military administrator; a solider himself who would never had appended his signature on a military land.

“He must have ensured that all due processes were followed and the professionals in the land ministry, especially the surveyor-general would have ensured that there was no encumbrance before the governor gave out the CofO to some of our members”.

However,  Oyo State High Court 11 presided over by Justice Ladiran Akintola had last year ruled that the status quo be maintained on the land, pending the final determination of the case instituted by Mesiogo Landlords Association.

The community had also written a letter dated November 19, 2018 to the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Survey, Secretariat, Ibadan requesting urgent intervention and clearance of Mesi-Ogo “Deed of conveyance dated March 3, 1965 and registered as no page 60 in volume 826 at the Lands Registry, Ibadan”.

However, spokesman of the 2 Division, Nigerian Army, Colonel Hassan Mohammed, Deputy Director, Army Public Relations when asked to speak on the matter, said he was not in Ibadan so he cannot comment on the matter.

Mohammad, in a brief telephone conversation with our correspondent, said, “I am not in Ibadan right now. I would not know what is going on there right now in Ibadan”.