By ALBERT AKPOR

THE lingering controversies over ownership of a vast area of land situated at Oke -Alo Estate, Anthony village, Lagos may have begun to take a frightening dimension with the lawyer to one of the parties, Mr. Olayinka Sanni, alleging that his life was in danger.

Ownership of the wide expanse of land is being contested by Delfino Anthonio Da Meranda family with Mr. Sanni as their lead counsel. The Lagos based constitutional lawyer who paid an unscheduled visit to Vanguard’s Corporate Headquarters, Apapa Wednesday, July 26 , 2011, told Crime Guard that since he took over the land matter, he had consistently cheated death.

First, he was robbed in his estate while returning from work by four heavily armed gang and his latest model Nissan Maxima car which contained vital documents including those relating to the land, were taken away by the robbers. Shortly afterwards, he was hit by a life threatening ailment which gulped almost all his life savings. And just as he was recuperating, his faceless and unrelenting assailants are back at work sending him threat text messages.

As if that was not enough, he claimed that the other party contending the land has resorted to using the police to harass, intimidate, arrest and detain some of his clients working at the site. He further alleged that the police which was supposed to treat matters referred to them dispassionately have visibly joined forces with the other party have compromised.

• Olayinka Sanni

Mr. Sanni informed that he had earlier alerted the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim on the unprofessional roles the police was playing on the matter, adding, “Even the directives of the IGP on the matter that policemen should stay clear since it was a matter before a court of competent jurisdiction were flagrantly undermined.

This unprofessional conduct of policemen has even caused a friction earlier between Alkali Yakubu, the Lagos state commissioner of Police and his Deputy in-charge of Administration when the latter ordered the immediate evacuation of policemen from the site in strict compliance with the IGP’s order.”

Continuing, Sanni said, “ I have come to you people because I believe that the media is the voice of the voiceless. It is no longer the court case that is getting on my nerves, but the role of the police in this matter.

The police have openly showed that they will only work for those who could pay their bills. As I speak to you, I have petitioned the IGP again on a recent development especially, the nauseating and unethical role of one Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge at the Force Headquarters annex, Alagbon, Lagos.

On June 10, a team of policemen stormed the site, arrested six of our staff who were keeping vigil on the land, hauled them into two waiting vans and drove them to an unknown destination.

I was later informed that the policemen led by one Inspector Fatai came from the anti-fraud unit Alagbon and I wandered what manner of fraud had been committed to warrant men from the fraud unit to take over a matter that is in court and being investigated by the office of an Assistant Inspector-General of Police AIG zone 2, Onikan, Lagos. All efforts to have them granted bail failed. On June 28, the police performed abracadabra (magic), procured a bag of Indian Hemp and said it was recovered from my clients.

They were consequently transferred to NDLEA with a written instruction specifying the return of two of the six suspects, namely Wasiu and Mr. Folorunsho Olusoji whenever the anti-drug agency was through with their investigation. The NDLEA having concluded their investigations wrote that they could not find any link with the bag of cannabis and the suspects.

They therefore, released them and returned both Wasiu and Olusoji back to the police as instructed. Is this not a clear indication that these boys are innocent and that the police was up to some funny games because of the money they collected?

Having detained these innocent people for this long and because of my consistent visits, four of the suspects were released on July 25, while Wasiu and Soji are still being held.

I was reliably informed which I believed to be true that, recently the police has started showing some affection towards the two remaining detained suspects by resorting to buying them mouth watering meal while persuading them to eat. It was a police friend that told me to warn my clients not to eat any food that does not come from their relations or else they would be poisoned.

Aside this, the police are constantly persuading the suspects to give them reliable contact on how to get one Pastor Kolawole Shotayo, a strong family member of Da Meranda family because they, the police, know that the moment they get hold of the Pastor, they are home and dry. Even my humble self have continued to receive threat text messages and anonymous calls.