To avoid breakdown of law and order in the community, members of the Ewade Ruling House, Igbooye, Epe, have asked the Lagos State Commissioner of Police (CP), Abiodun Alabi, to investigate the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Noforija, CSP Gregory Ikpehia, for allegedly conspiring with thugs.

Their letter is dated July 14 and titled, “Save Our Soul, abuse of office, criminal conspiracy and perversion of justice by CSP Gregory Ikpehia, DPO of Noforija Police Station, Eredo-Epe, against the head and principal members of Ewade Ruling House, Igbooye-Epe.”  

The petition was signed by head, Ewade Ruling House, Otunba Abdulwasiu Musa-Adebamowo; Principal member and Head, Osekelu branch of Ewade Ruling House, Alhaji Mikhail Quadri; Principal member and head, Okuyemi branch of Ewade Ruling House, Chief (Mrs) Kikelomo  Oladeji; Principal members, Chief Ligali Ayodele Olatunji, Chief Adegbenro Otunowo and family secretary, Abiodun Adekoya.  

The representatives of the ruling house said that they decided to file a civil suit against the thugs and hoodlums as required by the rules of the High Court of Lagos State, as a result of which pre-action protocol letters were served on one of the leaders of the thugs, but that the DPO dispatched his men to invite them for questioning on the reasons for wanting to file a civil suit against the suspects.   

Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the receipt of the petition and that the complaints in the petition were being investigated.

He said: “I am not telling you what the police authority is doing. A ruling house petitioned. We are looking into it. We are investigating the matter. I don have to tell you what we are doing about our investigation.”

In their petition, the five-man executive committee said they have been representing the interest of the Ewade Ruling House over time, citing various court judgments and rulings, including representations at various court cases, letter of appointment of the head of the family in 2006, reflecting the name of the head of the family and names of some of the accredited representatives to back their claims.

They alleged that some disgruntled and unknown members of the family (names withheld) constituted themselves into thugs and hoodlums, invaded part of the family land at Abapawa, and other related family lands at Legumo, Idotun, Gbojuwara and Talese, in Igbooye, Eredo-Epe and started disposing of same to their collaborators and other unsuspecting members of the public, thereby causing pandemonium and commotion in the community.

They said following this development, an earlier petition was written to the office of the Commissioner of Police.

They said the invasion and forceful takeover of their family landed property by these thugs and hoodlums were allegedly with the criminal conspiracy and active connivance of the DPO.

“Since December, 2021, till date, the head and the principal members of the Ewade Ruling House have on several occasions, on the instruction of the DPO, been arrested, sometimes, invited and detained in the Noforija Police Station, at the instance of the thugs and hoodlums as a result of the resistance from the accredited members of the Ewade Ruling House, over the forceful takeover of the family land.

“On five different occasions, the police officers from Noforija police station had given cover to the thugs and hoodlums, in the forceful takeover of family lands. These thugs and hoodlums have been visiting the family landed properties on regular basis under the cover of police officers on the instruction of the DPO of the Noforija Police Station, with the threat to dispose of the remaining parcel of land to the unsuspecting public, which has turned the Igbooye community into a tense atmosphere.

“As a result of these pervasive acts of forceful possession and incessant land grabbing activities of these thugs, using the instrumentality of the Nigeria Police, the accredited principal members of Ewade Ruling House wrote a Petition dated February 15, 2022 to the Chairman, Lagos State Taskforce on Land Grabbers.

“Upon our petition, the Lagos State Special Taskforce on Land Grabbers on May 12, 2022 visited the said landed property at Abapawa, Gbojuwara and Talese and erected sign posts signifying that the said lands are under investigation by the Special Task Force on Land Grabbers.

“Surprisingly, CSP Ikpehia assisted these thugs and hoodlums to attack the Lagos State Special Taskforce on Land Grabbers, on the excuse that he is not aware that such operation will take place within his division,” they claimed.