Businesses men, artisans and workers living within the Magodo phase 2 estate area of Lagos on Wednesday woke up to a lock down of the estate preventing them from going to their places of work following a court injunction in favour of landowners, under the Shangisha Landlord Association.
According to information, the lockdown was necessitated by the management of the estate to stop Landowners from driving around the estate with policemen and thugs to disrupt construction activities within the estate.
A Supreme Court decision, delivered on February 10, 2012, had mandated the Lagos State government to give back 549 plots to the original landowners of the area before it was “fraudulently” acquired over 38 years ago.
According to a press release signed by Adebayo Adeyiga, Chairman, Shangisha Landlord Association and seen by Nairametrics, members of the Shangisha Landlord Association had in 1984 challenged the military government of Gbolahan Mudashiru upon demolishing houses in Magodo after the forced acquisition of the entire land area for public use but was eventually not used for the intended purpose.
In 1988, a civil action was instituted against the State Government and the officials. After the matter went through the High Court, the appeal court and the Supreme court that dropped its hammers in 2012 with an order that members of the association should as a matter of first priority be given 549 plots of land in the area.
Since 2012, the process of harvesting the fruit of the Supreme Court Judgement has been trying to successfully claim the land.
This is not the first time the estate is being locked over the same issue. Last year, a similar occurrence had played out when some mobile policemen and thugs visited the residents upon court injunction against Lagos State government in a bid to execute court judgement in respect of 549 plots of land in the estate.
Chairman of the estate agent, Bajo Osinubu had said the activities in the estate was unwarranted leading to the lockdown of the state, adding that the judgement was being challenged in the Supreme Court.
According to him, “We are not aware that any plot of land has been allocated to the Ayiga family by the Lagos state government in respect of any land in Magodo GRA phase 2 for them to be able to lay claim to any particular house or land within Magodo”
He also called on the Inspector-General of Police and the general police authority not to allow the police force to be misled by the antics of the Ayiga family in an attempt to perpetrate their illegal and unlawful act of using self-help to illegally take possession of innocent people’s property.
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