EKO NEWS

The Gruesome Invasion of Igbogun Community Of Lekki LCDA.Ibeju Lekki, Lagos State by Security Men: A Metaphor of Injustice

Published

4 years ago

Jul 29, 2020.

For over five centuries, the Igbogun Community in Lekki Local Government, which had co-inhabited with the Ijebus, Ijesas, Oyos, Ondos, and Ekos without any rancor is now an epitome of devastation.

The travails of this peaceful and ever-welcoming Community began when Osunaike Ojumiri family, whose forebears were once accommodated by the Igbogun Community for about 150 years ago
started laying dubious claims that the land inhabited by Igbogun people indeed belongs to their progenitors; parading a presupposed judgment of the Supreme Court of
Nigeria, which was delivered in 1915.

However, in the said judgment, the matter raised was between Osunaike Ojumiri and the neighboring Okun Lape Community, which was not in any way linked with the Igbogun Community, which dwells on the other side of the Lagoon.

Accordingly, the people of Igbogun Community informed the Osunaikes that the judgment was fremd to them and thus have no consequential effect on them as no single individual in Igbogun were ever party to the Suit, and a 105-Year-Old Judgement cannot be enforced without going back to the Court.

Against all the odds, the desperate Osunaike Ojumiri family again approached the Police to assist them in dispossessing the Community of their Land.

Igbogun Community, however, decided to institute a Suit in Lagos state High Court Epe Judicial Division in Suit number: EPD/8659/LMW/2019 soliciting the court to determine who owns the Land.

Both parties are still in Court on land Matter, and as such, it is illegal for Osunaike to mobilize Police to the Community to force them to relinquish the Community Land to them.

The fundamental right suit EPE/7667/MFHR / 2018 delivered in June 2020 and the ongoing underlying right suit against the ACP GBOLAHAN OLUGBEMI EPD/ 9974/MFHR/2020 are enough restraining order to deter ACP GBOLAHAN OLUGBEMI from engaging in the act of illegality.

But while the Court is still adjudicating on the matter, the Osunaikes again took the law into their own hands by soliciting the assistance of the Police from Abuja and Lagos to harass and intimidate the people of Igbogun Community by arresting them at different times to dispossessed the Community from their Land.

Every one of these illegal arrests previously made had a corresponding Fundamental right suit against the Police and Osunaike Family with a recent 3 million Judgement delivered in June 2020 yet to be settled by them ( Suit No. Epe/7667MFHR/2018 )

The tracking of events and illegal arrests leading to the Murder of Monsuru from Ajah Area Command started in December 2019 where the Area Commander ACP GBOLAHAN OLUGBEMI ordered his Team of Police personnel to remove Sign Post of the Community on the Land in his quest to give Osunaike Ojumiri Family possession of the Community land while parties are still in Court to determine the real owner.

The Ajah Area Command has never concealed their vested interest and readiness to help the Osunaike family to illegally assume the ownership of the land since the Area Commander, ACP GBOLAHAN OLUGBEMI is alleged to have compromised with Osunaike family by being promised thirty (30) Acres of Land and cash gift from them, a development the Community viewed as illegal and dabbling into Civil matter already in Court.

The Community had filed another Fundamental right suit against the Area Commander, ACP GBOLAHAN OLUGBEMI, and got orders of Court restraining the Police from further harassing, intimidating, and arresting members of Igbogun Community over their Land needlessly at the instance of Osunaike Ojumiri / Bello Ayo Family.

The Area Commander is aware of this development but chose to disobey Court orders by sending his men to Kill, displaced, and overrun the Community. EPD/9974/MFHR/2020

In order to stop the illegal arrest, intimidation over Civil matter, the Community instituted a new Fundamental right Suit against the Police and the Family, including ACP Gbolahan and Osunaike Family, restraining them from further harassment and intimidation of any member of the Community.

The inhabitants of Igbogun Community equally secured a Court judgment and a fine of 3 million against the Police and the Osunaike Family for unlawful arrest carried out in the Community, which did not in any way deter the Area Commander from proceeding with his perfected and dubious plan.

Despite the several legal injunctions given by the Lagos State High Court restraining the Police and Osunaike Family from unduly harassing and intimidating the people of Igbogun Community, on 22 July 2020, the people of Community were taken aghast when the once serene and hospitable Community was besieged by Anti-Robbery Team,a Team of Soldiers, and the dreaded Land Grabbers (Owo Eye Boys) in more than 20 vehicles on the orders of ACP Gbolahan Olugbemi on behalf of the Osunaike Family to take control of their acclaimed Land.

They brutally attacked the members of the Igbogun Community, killing one Adams Monsuru and taking away his body with many other Community members sustaining gunshot wounds as the helpless victims are currently being treated in different hospitals.

The Community, therefore, wishes to call on the Governor of Lagos State and Lagos State Commissioner of Police to swiftly intervene in their plight before the dreaded, inhumane, and desperate Osunaike Ojumiri Family with the dubious assistance of ACP Gbolahah will turn them into fugitives in their own father’s Land.

All efforts to reach the ACP Gbolahan to get his version of the story had not been successful. According to his assistant, he promised to give Eko Hot Blog a callback.

See Photos and Video:

https://youtu.be/6XB4ER-7n-w