?Sends SOS to Police, Ogun Govt

By PRECIOUS UZO

The people of Igbo Olosa Village in Olorunshogo and Olomowewe areas of Ifo Local Government of Ogun State have sent a Save-Our-Souls (SOS) message to the Police and State Government, begging to be saved from the onslaught of land grabbers working in concert with some traditional rulers.

The cry for help is contained in a six-page SOS/Petition addressed to the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ogun State Ministry of Justice, Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, Ogun State. Dated April 4, 2025, it was signed by one Akin' Okunowo and titled, ?Petition Against The Baale of Olorunshogo, The Baale of Olomowewe, The Olori-Odo of Olorunshogo, Wahab, White, Akeem Labule and others, for Criminal Invasion, Unlawful Attack, Human Rights Abuse, Threat to Life, Breach of Public Peace, Violation of Human Rights, Destruction of Property and Willful Damage of Agricultural Investment with Intent to Steal Land at Igbo Olosha, Ifo, Ogun State.? The petition was copied to the Inspector-General of Police, Force Headquarters, Abuja; The Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 2, Lagos; The Commissioner of Police, Ogun State Command, Elewe-Eran, Abeokuta; The Director, Department of State Security Services, Ogun State Command, Abeokuta; The Special Adviser to the Governor on Security Matters, Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta, and The Commander, Ogun State Taskforce on Illegalities.

In it, the affected communities are drawing the attention of all those concerned, especially the State Government and the Ogun State Ministry of Justice, to the manner in which some traditional rulers in the aforementioned communities in open support to some supposedly highly respected members of the communities and in open disregard to the rule of law, connive with some people to recruit and arm thugs who attack, maim and intimidate genuine, traditional family owners of the land, forcing them against their wishes to relinquish such properties with little or no compensation

The petitioners claim that the syndicate would look for farm lands they perceive do not have, or may even have covering documents, trick the original owners through the office of the King (Kabiyesi) to bring such as proof of their ownership of the land. ?When they have obtained such documents from the original owners, they will go ahead to duplicate such, then use the now purported new land documents to obtain official registration and approvals on the land from the Ogun State Government, as the new owners of the land, which will counter the former documents on the land,? the petitioners said.

Continued, the petition said: ?Armed with the now "new" document and a new owner, the land grabbers will now swoop on the land, intimidating and threatening the original owners that the land is now "acquired" by the government, and would begin processes for forceful eviction of the owners from their land, many times with no compensations, and if at all, nothing to write home about in terms of the value on the land.?

According to the petitioners, where and when this perceived civilised approach fails, the next option, according to the petition is for the land grabbers to physically hire and ?arm thugs with guns, cutlasses, axes, iron rods, charms and other harmful objects, dangerous weapons, invade the land....sometimes, a whole village or villages at once and the Police would not act.?

On the culpableness of the traditional rulers in the whole exercise, the document explained: "the traditional rulers now mastermind the armed invasions by the land grabbers....they coordinate them on phone to avoid physically leading them to the crime scene in other to claim alibi and avoid being blamed for whatever havoc the armed thugs cause....

?The traditional rulers can also claim (after compromise) that government has confiscated the land and the only advice is for the land owners to get little compensation from the land buyers or new occupiers.?

The petitioners stressed the need for, ?the Ogun State Government of Prince Dapo Abiodun, the exalted office of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), through the equally respected office of the Assistant Inspector General (AIG) in charge of the Zone 2 Zonal Command Headquarters, the Commissioner of Police (CP), Ogun State Command, the Commissioner for Justice, Ogun State and other relevant agencies of government to do the needful ? taking decisive actions singularly and collectively to curb this menace of land grabbers and other associated crimes and vices in Ogun State cannot be overstated or undermined.?

?As the chief security officers at their different levels ? the governor at the state level, and the commissioner of police at the Police level, all efforts in conjunction with other agencies of government in the state and zone should come together, to ensure that criminal activities like those of land grabbers, along with their collaborators is brought to an end in Ogun State....no one should be spared for land grabbing, arming of thugs, and constituting of security breaches instead of helping security agencies fight crime and criminality,? the petitioners said.

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