Land Grabbers Using Obasanjo's Name To Harrass Us, Ogun Communities Cry Out

ABEOKUTA - No fewer than 200 communities in the Ifo local government area of Ogun State at the weekend alleged that hoodlums, suspected to be land grabbers are using the name of former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to terrorize and seize their lands.

The affected communities included Gbogbo Oke, Gbogbo Odo, Luwani, Yanbi, Jagunna, Iyedi Balogun, Iyedi Ikereku, Asa Apon, and Oke Nla, amongst others by the Obaragun people of Awori extraction.

Speaking with newsmen in Abeokuta, on the plight of the villagers, the Olu of Sunren Olorunsogo, Oba Samuel Olukayode Sodimu, appealed to the State government, and law enforcement agencies in the state to come to their aid, saying that his community has been served between 24 to 48 hours notice to vacate their communities by the hoodlums.

According to Oba Sodimu, land speculators have engaged in name-dropping, alleging that former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been supporting them because he also had thousands of acres of land in the area.

While giving background information to their plight, Oba Sodimu said, defenselessly, these people have turned the villages to their base, and it is beyond the power of the villagers to confront the land grabbers especially with aid and support of the most influential personality within and outside the State. The new trend of events is the use of mobile police to harass, humiliate and physically assault the villagers”.

Oba Sodimu, therefore, called on the Ogun State government to come to their aid.

“These people claimed to have gotten a Supreme court ruling but their purported Supreme Court judgement was between the late Oba Ayorinde, Alakija of Orile Ikija and Ibaragun”.

“We were not served any notice by any court, neither did our forefathers tell us that we are related with them”.

“So, we are surprised that they claimed to have a judgement against us when the distance between us in landmass is very far”.

“We are appealing to the state government, all law enforcement agencies in the state to please come to our rescue. We have the elderly in the community who have history and ancestors attached there. So, we cannot be forced out of our ancestral homes when we have a government in the state”.

Also speaking, the Asiwaju of Isola land, Apostle M A Akindele JP, noted that on November 2nd 2021, the land grabbers had invaded the community, but they were able to arrest some of them and handed them to the police.

He stressed that findings show that they claimed to have gotten their support from the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to who they claimed to have allocated about 1000 hectares of our land.

“These people are using the name of our referred father, former President Olusegun Obasanjo as their supporter. I am sure baba himself might not know this. So, we are using this medium to inform him of these people trying to soil his name on land matters”

“River Ogun already separated the two communities. It has not been in any history that the Awori Ibaragun are part of us”.

“We have written to the State government, the Ogun state House of Assembly, and law enforcement agencies concerning this issue. We hope they wade in before things degenerate”, he added

The Olorunsogo community is located half from Papa and Sagamu Interchange and contains over 200 communities which include, Gbogbo Oke, Gbogbo Odo, Luwani, Yanbi, Jagunna, Iyedi Balogun, Iyedi ikereku, Asa Apon, and Oke Nla, amongst others cutting across 3 local government areas

Others at the briefing include, the Baale of Apode land, Baale Richard Adeosun, Prof. Afolabi Soyode, Are Oluomo of Egbaland and the Councillor, representing the community, Hon. Folarin Olujimi.