An engineer, Olufemi Fasehun has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP) over land grabbing involving the police and Egunaye fami...
An engineer, Olufemi Fasehun has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP) over land grabbing involving the police and Egunaye family of Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos.
The petition sent to the IGP, through his lawyer, Otunba Remi Adeoye, accused some police officers who the petitioner claimed were being used by people wanting to take his land from him and thereby threatening his life.
Engr Fasehun said he was appointed as the administrator of his father’s estate in 2003, and that he never imagined that some 15 to 20 years later, he would find himself in a position where he would be fighting against conspiring parties, not just for his land inheritance, but also for his life.
He said on January 10, 1961, his late father, Mr. Ebenezer Olawanle Fasehun, purchased a piece of land located at 10, Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos, from Egunaye family of Oregun with the sum of 100 pounds sterling.
Afterwards, he proceeded to register the title documents of the land, and a survey lodged with respect to the same land, was also registered alongside the doecument that same year.
Upon carrying out these due registration processes to legally lay claim to ownership of the land, Mr. Fasehun senior proceeded to build a house on his land, fenced it round, and lived there with his family from 1961 till his death in 2004.
"Before his death, however, he gave a power of attorney to his only male child, Engr. Femi Fasehun, to administer his estate—including the entire property located at 10, Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos.
"After the man’s death, a family case involving Engr. Olufemi Fasehun Late father’s concubine and her children arose from the management of the estate where the High Court of Lagos State partitioned his father's estate amongst the beneficiaries and following the judgment of Hon. Justice Onyeabo delivered on 10th January, 2019, the ownership of the property was given to him.
"However, Since December 2021, a period during which he was outside the country, Engr. Olufemi Fasehun alleged that persons identified as Tajudeen Egunaye Alias Oluwo, Ayinde Sanni Egunaye, Alhaji Muili Oshin, Chief Taiwo Hassan, Suraju Ajose, and one Aare Tomori Williams, with the assistance and backing of several Baales like Bolaji Thomos Jaji, Baale of Allen aided by an All Progressives Congress (APC) leader in Lagos State, Cardinal James Odunmbaku, alias Baba Eto, allegedly forcefully and forcibly entered into the same property capitalizing on the fact he was residing abroad at the time.
"Based on this occurrence, he engaged the services of private security men to protect his property from trespassers and also built security house for the convenience of the security men engaged to protect the property.
"Upon the completion of the security house and after having invested over N5, 000, 000.00 (Five Million Naira) to build the security house, the same parties listed above alongside others and with the help of armed thugs, went into his property in the same location and destroyed the gates, vandalized the fence, demolished buildings on the property, including the security house he had erected on the land."
Following these disheartening developments, Engr. Fasehun was prompted to write petition to the Assistant Inspector General of Police at Zone 2, Cominand, Onikan, Lagos State in January 2022, through his Solicitor, Otunba Remi Adeoye complaining about the alleged criminal activities of these persons, but they failed and refused to honour all the invitations sent to them.
He said on 11th February 2023, the same faulting parties listed above in the company of several thugs, miscreants and hoodlums numbering close to fifty (50) in number, allegedly forcefully broke into the same property again, demolished part the fence on the building, removed the security wires on the fence, damaged the gate at the back of the building, and broke into the residential building inside the premises.
The straw that broke the camel’s back came when the defendants, led by Chief Tajudeen Muyile Egunaye, Aare Tomori Williams (the Oluwo of Oregun), aided and abetted by DCP Sheikh Danko, SP Sahabi Abubakar and DSP Mukaila Salami who are police men from Alagbon Police command, locked up Mr. Fasehun’s property, which the Fasehun family has held in occupation with buildings there on since 1961.
Based on these events, his lawyers, Otunba Remi Adeoye and Femi Adisa - Isikalu have divided their arguments against the Egunayes and their co-conspirators into two:Civil Litigation and Criminality in the conducts of the accused and their accomplices.
On the Civil Litigation, in a letter addressed to the Inspector General of Police, they submitted that the invitation by the police at the instance of the accused persons into this matter was sub-judice and amounted to collateral attack on the jurisdiction of the Court.
They also stated that a court order restraining the accused from trespassing on Mr. Fasehun’s property had been published in several newspapers, but the accused hoodwinked the innocent police officers to join them to disobey court order.
On the other side of the matter, some of Mr. Fasehun’s opponents have also laid claim to the land in the same location arguing that it belongs to the Egunaye family by inheritance and that contrary to Mr. Fasehun’s claims, he has been caught up by limitation of time and his rights—real or imagined—have been extinguished.
According to them, some persons attempted to trespass on the land sometime in 2011, and acting as representatives of the Egunaye family, they instituted an action against the trespassers in court. The Court, according to them, ordered that the status quo be maintained — meaning that no development was to take place on the land until the Court decided otherwise.
They further added that before this attempted trespass, they had already fenced the land to demarcate it from the earlier sold part, but that Mr. Olufemi Fasehun broke into the land, and with the aid of weapons wielding Military officers, he demolished their fence, removed their gate, built another fence with a new gate, and commenced other buildings within the land.
Otunba Remi Adeoye, the Solicitor to Engr. Olufemi Fasehun said that he already have the instructions of his client to commence an action against the policemen at Alagbon for assisting and encouraging the Land grabbers to enter into his land at No. 10, Kudirat Abiola way, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos.
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