Thugs suspected to be land grabbers penultimate Wednesday unleashed terror on Ijemo-Durodola village in Ifo local government area of Ogun State leaving one person dead and several injured with farmland and livestock destroyed.
Narrating their ordeal to newsmen in the village, the Baale of the village (head of the village), Chief Adelaja Lateef said the thugs were been sponsored by Alimi Dada popularly known as Baba Aluta, from IlogboAsowo who gave the illegal contract of claiming the land of Ijemo-Durodola to Fobai and Ogidi.
He said, the Ijemo Dandola belongs to Egbaland and not Awori but since the Aworis had exhausted their land, Alimi Dada now wanted to claim the land as his property.
He noted that the village had been attacked severally by Alimi Dada and his gangs and each time they attack us, the matter is being reported to Coker Police Station.
He said, “whenever they attack us, we will report the matter to Coker Police station, but no action has been taking. We realized that all officers in the station had been compromised. They had all collected bribe. So they cannot do anything.
“We had sent several petition to the station, but nothing came out of those petition since they had collected bribe. Alimi Dada with his connection with police and the power of money always suppress our petitions”
Chief Adelaja alleged that the Area Commander of the Police command has also been compromised in the matter because no action has been taking on our matter.
Whenever the Alimi gang is about to attack us, a team of police led by Superintended Mukaila popularly known as ‘Obulegbe’, who will first come to the village, begin to shoot gut into the air to scare the villagers few minute after their departure, the thugs will then invade the village and begin to terrorize the villagers.
The matter is already in court, we do not know why they are in hurry; they should wait for the pronouncement of the court.
The attack of Wednesday led to the death of Sunday Adelaja and his corpse has been deposited in mortuary with the help of the police.
In one of the petitions written to the Ogun State Command of Nigeria Police, titled “Quick Intervention in Our Community to Avoid Fire for Fire”, the community noted that in 2018 alone the land grabbers invaded the village about four times with sophisticated weapons destroying our property and carting our valuables worth of millions of Naira.
The petition reads in part “honourable Commissioner sir, as of the time of writing this petition, more than fifty thugs with dangerous weapons of death have permanently taken over our village after chasing away the Baale, Chief Isaac Adeliyi, his chiefs and every male indigenous person of the village”.
“Since the illegal invasion and forceful occupation of our village by these miscreants, we could not gain access to our farm lands to farm and harvest our farm produce. They have denied us our primary means of livelihood and we are experiencing extreme hunger and poverty in the midst of plenty”.
“They have continued to devastate our life long and cherished resources. They have been felling our economic trees and excavating sharp and soft sand from our rivers and their banks for sale; using death threats and intimidation”.
“In addition, they have continued to impose levies and taxes on the non-indigenes who are the only ones allowed to remain the village”.
“We are seriously pained and sad on that the day of the invasion and subsequent occupation of our village by these land merchants, our diligent intelligence confirmed that the Police officers from Sango –Ota, under the command of the Area Commander aided and abetted the criminals and dastardly act after being financially compromised”.
The villagers therefore pleaded with police authority to intervene in the matter before it goes out hand.
“We request the quick intervention of Commissioner of Police in Ogun State direct intervention because our people were ready now to face the war drawn by the Alani Dada representing Aworis. This is how Modakeke and Ife war started”.
“The beginning of war, one knows, the end of war, nobody knows how it ends. That’s why we are appealing to our amiable Commissioner of Police to intervene in this matter we have tried to make several report to Police Stations around us and of course the headquarters, no positive result”.
Therefore, indigenes of Ijemo-Dandola village in Ifo local government in Ogun State have appealed to the Ogun State government and Acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu to as a matter of urgency deliver them from the activities of land grabbers that had been terrorizing the villagers with ultimate aim of claiming their village.
“We equally appealed to all traditional rulers in Egbaland, especially, the Alake, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo to come to our aid because we don’t want the repeat of Ife/Modakeke crisis in our community. We are peace loving people.
When called for reactions, the Police Public Relations Officer for Ogun State, Abimbola Oyeyemi said he was not aware of the matter, promising that he would investigate the matter.
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