•Ojo Barber family to residents: Regularise your title now
•Govt must intervene now- House owners

By Jude Njoku

Against the backdrop of a recent protest to Government House, Alausa by about 130 homeowners in Ilamoshe Village in the Ejigbo Local Government Area of Lagos State, alleging that hoodlums had taken over their property, the Habdul Hamid Ojo popularly called Ojo Barber family last week, insisted that the protesters are trespassers who have no legal right on the land they built on.

Attorney to the Ojo Barber family, Mr. Cornelius Odunsi who made the claim, insisted that although his clients have no intention of demolishing any property in the already built-up area, house owners in the disputed Ilamoshe village must come to the judgement creditor (Ojo Barber family) to regularise their title documents.

Mr Odunsi who briefed newsmen at the NUJ Press Centre, disclaimed what he called spurious and unfounded petitions by the residents. He stated that such petitions were borne out of the fact that “the trespassers have not read the judgement or are bing mischievous in their bid to frustrate the judgement creditors”.

Court judgement

“ Court judgement must be obeyed unconditionally and without demand otherwise the rule of the jungle will prevail in the society. The trespassers are defiant to the court order; the trespassers cannot constitute another court outside the courts of law”, he said, adding that the matter “is a concluded case well litigated and all issues now being raised by residents and their lawyers having been founded and pronounced upon by the courts”.

Mr Odunsi traced the background to the land tussle to 1921 when the late Ojo Barber allegedly bought the 13.31 hectares parcel of land from Odubada Family. According to him, problem started when Ojo Barber died in 1980 and people took advantage of his death to encroach into the land. Odunsi explained that it took the Lagos High Court sitting at Ikeja 17 years to deliver judgement in favour of his clients. Not satisfied with the judgement, the defendants went on an appeal which lasted for another four years before the Appeal Court upheld all the decisions of the lower court in January this year.

Armed with the judgement, the Ojo Barber family served a notice to house owners in the area intimating them of its intention to take over possession of the land on August 5, 2011.

He claimed that the atmosphere on August 5 when the family went with the bailiff to take possession of the land was “devoid of any rancour contrary to the misinformation that hoodlums were hired by the judgement creditors to invade the village. Thereafter, a seven-day grace was to the affected residents to come forward for ratification of their titles. Inspite of the awareness created and oral representation, the affected residents chose to be recalcitrant and indifferent to the same”.

Part of the property taken by the Ojo Barber family is the popular Adejumo Sports complex. Odunsi justified their action thus: “Whosoever owns land owns what is on it and those underneath”.

Reminded that some of house owners have valid certificate of occupancy, he retorted that such C of O would be a worthless piece of paper because you cannot have a C of O on another man’s land.

House owners claim

House owners in the village had last month protested vehemently over the Ojo Barber familiy’s repossession of the land in the village.

Led by the CDA chairman, Mr Val Iwuchukwu, the house owners who arrived at the seat of government with placards, demanded the immediate intervention of the government.

Some of the placards read, ‘Ilamoshe under siege;’ ‘our houses are under lock and key;’ ‘Save our soul;’ ‘Save us.

Iwuchukwu told journalists that the residents had been locked out of their houses since August 5 by hoodlums. According to him, the residents were first served with quit notices for illegally occupying the land which the notice said did not belong to them.

He alleged that the residents had purchased about 150 plots of land from one Odubada family about 30 years ago before another family, Samuel Ojo family, started laying claim to the land after a court judgment.

He said the residents had inaugurated a committee to have dialogue with the family through their counsel, Cornelius Odunsi, but their efforts failed.