LAGOS — Prince Abiola Kosoko, the Oloja-elect of Lagos, has filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit against the Oba of Lagos and top officers of the Nigeria Police Force, deepening the raging tussle over land ownership in Ogombo, Eti-Osa Local Government Area, and succession to the historic Oloja of Lagos chieftaincy title.
The suit, lodged before a Federal High Court in Lagos, lists as respondents: the Inspector General of Police, Assistant Inspector General of Police (Zone 2, Onikan), Deputy Commissioner of Police Bello Muhammed, Mariam Ogunmolasuyi, Inspector Ebere, the Oba of Lagos, and Olumegbon Ajah Chieftaincy Family Property & Investments Ltd, a company tied to the Olumegbon royal family.
Prince Kosoko is seeking a declaration of his fundamental rights to protection against harassment, intimidation, and unlawful arrest, as well as an order restraining the police and the Oba of Lagos from further interference with his family’s ancestral land in Ogombo.
In an affidavit filed in support of the suit, the Oloja-elect said he is a direct descendant of King Kosoko, the famed 19th-century warrior-king of Lagos. He accused law enforcement agents, allegedly acting on instructions, of arresting and detaining workers on Kosoko family land, and filing criminal charges over what he insists is “purely a civil dispute.”
He recalled that a Lagos High Court had, in Suit No. LD/12881LMW/2022, already ruled in favour of the Kosoko family. Justice O. Ogunjobi, in a consent judgment delivered on November 12, 2024, affirmed the family’s ownership of 114.476 hectares of land at Ogombo.
“Ownership of land is a civil matter, not a criminal one. If the 6th respondent disagrees with the judgment, the proper step is to appeal, not to deploy the police to intimidate me and dispossess my family,” Kosoko stated in his affidavit.
The prince further alleged that beyond the land dispute, there is an orchestrated attempt to undermine his family’s hereditary right to the Oloja of Lagos title, which he stressed has historically belonged to the Kosoko lineage.
Tracing his ancestry, he noted that King Kosoko acquired vast territories from Lagos Island to Epe through conquest, with treaties of 1854 and 1863 acknowledging his dominion before parts of the estate were ceded to the British. He maintained that Ogombo lands form part of this heritage, and that contrary claims — including those of the Olumegbon family — cannot override the 2024 High Court ruling.
The defendants are yet to file their defence, and no date has been set for the hearing of the case.
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