The Youth Forum and Concerned Indigenes of Ajiran Community in Lagos State have urged Oba Tijani Akinloye, to stop using fake civil society groups to blackmail the Forum for challenging alleged land grabbing going on in the Community.

This admonition to Oba Akinloye is contained in a statement forwarded to journalists on Thursday, which was signed by the Secretary of Ojomu Youth Forum and the Concerned Indigenes of Ajiran land in Lagos, Mr. Wasiu Yekini.

Yekini said in the statement that Tajudeen Ahmed and other members of the Youth Forum were not land grabbers, accusing Oba Akinloye and Alhaji Yekini Bakare of causing trouble in the area.

According to the statement, in several letters written to the Governor and other governmental agencies, Ojomu Community, otherwise referred to as Ajiran Land in Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos, has consistently frowned at attempts by the traditional ruler and his ally to change legal representatives for the purposes of the Deeds of Assignment of portions of land forming part of our communal Land (Ojomu Chieftaincy Family Land).

Yekini explained further that the two lawyers recommended by the traditional ruler, were members of his immediate family and of his ally, Alhaji Yekeni Bakare.

“The Kabiyesi has attempted to change the lawyers appointed by the Family to his son, Mr. Jide Akinloye of Akinloye and Associates, and Mrs Lateefat Hakeem-Bakare of Rosewood Legal, the daughter-in-law of his ally, Alh. Yekini Bakare.

“The community made it clear to the Oba that act of unilaterally removing the family lawyer and replacing them with his son and the daughter-in-law of his co-conspirator, Alhaji Bakare is ‘unfair, immoral and illegal’. Sensing it as a plot to deny them of their common patrimony, the community threatened to approach the court if the decision was not reversed,” the statement read.

The forum maintained that the monarch has made several allegations against the indigenes of the Ajiran Community and the Ojomu family to the police.

“On each occasion, he and his ally chickened out when it was time to present evidence in support of their allegations.

“In the face of the above hard and irrefutable facts, it is vacuous for any paid agent to adorn the traditional ruler in roses and question the community’s right to defend their common patrimony and heritage.

“The Youth Forum led by Tajudeen Ahmed has the mandate of the community to raise questions regarding the greed and blatant stealing of collective patrimony that the Oba and his ally have engaged in,” the statement added.

The forum described the publication of stories on the community in the media as lies, saying that there is no iota of truth in such media reports. (Courtesy, excluding headline, New Telegraph)