By Evelyn Usman

Despite a court’s order to policemen attached to the Lagos State Task Force on Environmental and Special Offences , not to encroach into an expanse of land in Eyin-Osa , in the Ibeju Lekki area of Lagos State, one of the defendants in the suit, Mr Abdulahi Mosadoluwa, has accused the policemen of disobeying the order.

A Magistrate of a mobile court, Magistrate A.A Adesanya, in the suite between the Attorney General of Lagos State and Abdullahi Mosadoluwa, Safuraimi Agbaja, Balogun Olanuklan and Yusuf Oladimeji , has last Wednesday, also ordered other parties in the land dispute not to erect any fence on it

However , in a press briefing in the Ikeja , Mosadoluwa, popularly called Ibile accused the policemen of taking side with a party in the land dispute , alleging that despite the court order, the policemen still invaded the land , thereby necessitating him to file another suit in court to stop the action.

He wondered why the Taskforce Chairman was bent on handling the matter when policemen at the Force headquarters, Abuja were also investigating the same matter.

Since the investigation by the Task Force began, he alleged that several attempts had been made to put him in jail to allow his opponent to take over the expanse of land.

Controversy

However, Vanguard gathered that Mosadoluwa was arrested by the Police over alleged assault on some persons.

In a video that went viral recently, he was seen stripping and torturing a man identified as Shamsudeen Olowo.

The three minutes video also showed other young men who were in their nude, being beaten.

Chairman of the TaskForce, Shola Jejeloye, in a statement signed by the Director, Press and Public Affairs , TASK Force, Mr Gbadeyan , described Mosadoluwa as a landgrabber , explained that his arrest followed complaints by residents and land owners in his area.

He further alleged that “ Ibile has been doing it for quite a while,but luck ran out on him on July 8, 2023, when he swooped in on a certain portion of land in Oke-Ogun area of Epe with some armed thugs in order to dislodge workers who were carrying out construction works on the land. He rounded up everyone present and dehumanized them by blindfolding them and stripping them naked just to cow them into fear and submission.”

But the Managing Director, Harmony Gardens and Estate Development Limited told journalists that the men in the video were hired assassins on a mission to snuff life out of him.

He said, “While I was in Saudi Arabia, I received a call from Olowo , he said he had been paid N12 million to assassinate him. He demanded N100 million from me to spare my life but I called his bluff.

“When I arrived in Nigeria, I visited one of my estates and the assassins came there. There were gunshots from different directions. Olowo shot at me but I was able to overpower him with the support of God. By the time I brought him out, the community and other Mobile policemen had arrested six others and stripped them naked.

“That was the video that was circulated. The video was edited, it did not have the part where one of them confessed that he was paid N12 million to assassinate me. He mentioned the account details where part of the money was paid into by the person that sent him.

“I was invited to the Task Force office because of the video that was circulating. On getting there I was urged to negotiate with the land grabber who said I should give him 1000 hectares of land if I wanted peace .But I insisted that I won’t release 100 feet of people’s investment to anybody.

“A week later, some policemen from the Task Force called me to come over to my site, when I got there, they picked me up ,took me to Task Force office again, accusing me of defrauding someone of N500 million, whereas, the person in question was the one indebted to my company.

Thrown into cell

“ I showed the TaskForce Chairman, Jejeloye, all the documents of the transaction on my phone, he said I should hold on , that he was going to brief the Commissioner of Police. When he left, I was thrown into the cell with an instruction that I should not be allowed to use my phone or put on my clothes.

“Two of my security guards were dumped in the cell. Those guys were inside the cell for five days, including some elders in the community who went to the Police to state what they knew about the matter. We were in the cell with 54 other persons”.

Though he said he still had hope in senior police officers, he insisted that if the matter must be investigated, an independent investigative team in Abuja should carry on to ascertain the true position of the matter on ground, instead of the Task Force or any police team in Lagos State.

He also expressed hope that with the matter in the court, the Task Force policemen would stay away from his land.

When the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hudenyi, was contacted, he declined to comment on the matter, stating rather that the matter was in court.