LASG warns against violence, use of land grabbers in property dispute
By Modupe Shodeinde
The Lagos State Government has warned residents against resorting to self help and employing the services of land grabbers to cause violence in cases of property dispute.
Guardian Newspaper reported that the Commissioner for justice/attorney-general Moyosore Onigbanjo gave the warning at a stakeholder meeting in Ikorodu themed “Land Grabbers, the Law, and Your rights”.
He stated that “All we are saying is that no one should resort to self-help,” Onigbanjo said. “There are laws in place, and violence will never be condoned because of disputes in land matters.”
“The court of law is there. Let them go there. Killing and maiming people all in the name of land matters will not be tolerated.”
Onigbanjo who was represented by Saheed Quadri, the directory for advisory services in the ministry, noted that the government enacted the Lagos State land-grabbing law to prohibit forceful entry and illegal occupation of landed properties, as well as violent and fraudulent conducts in relation to landed properties.
He accused some traditional leaders and community members of working as accomplices for land grabbers.
A Muslim cleric, Yaya Oshoala, at the meeting stated that lawyers, police, and traditional leaders were guilty of complicity in violence emanating from land grabbing incidences.
Oshoala said that land grabbers in Ikorodu should not be solely blamed for illegal land acquisition.
“There is injustice on the part of family elders and the baales (traditional chiefs) due to their greed and selfish interests,” Oshoala said.
“We rely on the police but they have let us down, these land grabbers bribe them with land and money to subvert justice.”
However, Lagos State commissioner of police, Hakeem Odumosu, represented by an assistant commissioner of police in charge of operations, Oladotun Odugbona, said that land grabbing could not be done without the support of conspirators within.
He stated that the police were not guilty of conspiring with land grabbers, saying the police job is to arrest, investigate and prosecute.
“Anything done outside that is beyond the scope of police work,” he said.
The representative of the Ikorodu branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Shakiru Omolaja reiterated that section 11 of the Lagos State Property Protection Law, 2016, prescribes 10 years’ imprisonment for anyone convicted of land grabbing and advised disagreeing parties to seek legal redress.
