A businessman, Mr Akogun Elijah Adeogun has appealed to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun to intervene and investigate trumped up allegations leveled against him by some land speculators.
The speculators, he said, are linking him to the unrest and murder in Osuke community of Ota, Ogun State. Adeogun at a press conference said those linking him to the unrest in Osuke, which claimed the life of one Obasanjo Jinadu Saheed, have resorted to blackmail and using the police to arrest him incessantly despite the fact that he was not in Osuke community when the incident happened as well as the fact that he has no hand in the incident.
“This issue started about three weeks ago after I was selected by the Living Faith Tabernacle Church aka Winners Chapel Ota as a member of the Church’s Land Committee. I’m not from the Osuke community. I’m from the Ilasa community.
“I have been to Osuke only once in my life. I don’t have land in the Osuke community and I am not the Winners Chapel that owns land in the area. I was included in the land committee three weeks ago because they got wind of the kind of job I do.
“We had a meeting of the committee where it was resolved that everyone should steer clear of all the lands belonging to the Church at least for now, because despite having a subsisting court injunction which was gotten on the lands, the land speculators still continue to dredge the land for commercial purposes. So, it was resolved that we should write a petition to that effect,” he explained.
Adeogun further said, they were at the Police Command at Elewaran Ogun State last week for the petition they wrote on the case, while one Ibrahim Ibuoye also wrote his own petition. He stated: “It was at the DCP’s office that we resolved through an undertaking that all parties should maintain the status quo on the land as the court ruled.
“Is Winners land a plot of land or half plot of land that I can encroach with the aim of selling? So, how will I go there to cause trouble?” Speaking on the blackmail and concerted efforts to malign him using the police, Akogun said he was in court on Monday, February 24th when the blackmail started.
“One Mr. Julius Aghahowa called me when he heard there was shooting in the Osuke community and I asked him what concerned me with it? I told him not to call my line again. When I returned from court in the evening, I got another call from Zone 2 police command on Onikan Lagos because Winners Church land case is being handled there with the IGP Monitoring Unit. So, I told them that they should call Winners because I don’t have land in Osuke. And I am not at loggerheads with anyone in the community.”
“My role in Winner’s land committee is just to advise them on what to do to resolve the land dispute they have with land speculators. After I returned from the Magistrates’ court in Ota, I found a news report linking me to the unrest and killing of one Obasanjo Jinadu Saheed at Osuke community.
“I was shocked as I was not anywhere near the community that fateful day. The matter was reported at the Elewaran police Headquarters in Ogun state and the police went to the court to investigate and they found out that I was indeed in the court when the unrest and killing took place in the community.
“I am therefore very sad that due to my membership as a land Committee member of my Church, some land speculators are out to destroy my name and link me to a terrible crime like murder.
“I have learnt that they have petitioned the Assistant Inspector General of Police AIG Zone 2 Onikan Lagos to arrest me. This is all in a bid to continue to soil my reputation. I will not hesitate to report these persons to the police authority over this blackmail and linking me to murder.
“I am therefore appealing to the IGP Egbetokun to save me from these desperate land speculators as I call for a thorough investigation into this matter because I am innocent.”
An executive member of one of the CDA’s in Osuke Town, Mr. Abejide Ogunwole told journalists on a fact finding mission earlier that Adeogun is a person well known to him.
“He is a well respected member of Ilasa Town as a native of the place and he is also a dedicated member of Winners Chapel.
“His trouble started after he was selected as a member of the Land committee in Living Faith Church and those linking him to the unrest in Osuke community are unhappy since he became a member of that land committee,” Ogunwole said.
