Citizens lament excesses of land grabbers (Omo Onile)

It is not news that the activities of land grabbers, popularly called Omo Onile, is constituting serious menace to communities across the country. What is new is their growing mindless and unrestrained tactics aimed at extorting and inflicting harm on hapless property owners.

Unlike their old practice, whereby, only the foundation laying, fencing and roofing of buildings were subjected to heavy taxation, digging of boreholes, soak away pit, lintel and other menial construction works are now charged.

Aside this, in some areas, especially in Lagos State, landlords who had built houses for decades are forced to part with stipulated amount of money, depending on the area, to renew their ownership of that particular parcel of land, in the name of getting family receipt.

The Guardian learnt that in some areas, the act is carried out in connivance with traditional rulers. For instance, few months ago, in Agodo town in Ikotun area of Lagos State, a monarch mandated all house owners to pay the sum of N50, 000, each to ‘harmonise and reconcile’ the receipt of lands purchased over 20 to 30 years ago.

It was learnt that a notice was pasted on all the houses in the community, coupled with letters, summoning all landlords for a meeting at the monarch’s palace, after which each house was charged N50, 000.

A copy of the letter, titled; “Reconciliation And Perfection Of Title To The Property You Occupy In Agodoland”, made available to The Guardian, warned that failure of the landlords to respond to the letter shall be “construed to mean that you have no title document to the land and/or not interested anymore in the property.”

A son of one of the landlords, Segun Ayinde (not real name), whose late father built the house 25 years ago, said he was forced to pay the money because the land grabbers could invade the house, lock it down or destroy their property.

“Paying the money was just to allow peace to reign, without which the monarch can order his thugs to destroy the house. Reporting to the police would not work because the police usually supervise their illegal acts. They also have a way of getting dubious court injunctions that make them to claim ownership of any particular area, whenever they are taken to court.”

When The Guardian visited the palace of the monarch, Oba Mudashiru Alade Salawudeen Odejobi, the Alagodo of Agodo kingdom, to verify the claim, the monarch sent a message that he was busy, without asking for the purpose of the visit.

A landlady, Mrs. Janet Okoh, who fell victim of similar land grabbers antics’ in Ogun State told The Guardian that after the death of her husband, she was forced to re-purchase the two plots of land, with the claim that their forefathers who sold the land in early 1970s did not issue any family receipt.

“I paid the money for two reason, first, because of the existing building on the land and secondly, if I chose the option of inviting the military to scare them, I may face serious hostility whenever I move in, because there might be threat to my family,” she said.

She, however, said community leaders need to play important role in addressing the issue, as new methods are being introduced on daily basis to inflict pains on people who struggle to buy land.

The traditional ruler of Lisa town, Ogun State, Chief Najeem Oladele Odugbemi, who decried the development, said the issue of land grabbing is in two phases- primary and secondary Omo Onile. “The primary are those waging war on people within the community, armed hooligans that invade communities, killing and maiming original land owners, who had been living there for centuries. The secondary are those operating in Lekki and other parts of Lagos.”

While noting that traditional rulers and government need to pay urgent attention to the development because of the negative impact it has on the society, he advised community leaders to call all the families within their domain and discourage them from contracting land agents, because the so-called land agents are the real land grabbers.

“Some traditional rulers are directly involved in this act, that makes everything to be complicated. The only thing is to appeal to our traditional rulers that they should not encourage land agents to cover their communities; they should also discourage families within their communities from engaging land agents. The so-called land agents are not land agents; they are the real land grabbers. When you engage these people to unleash mayhem on people, it is no more business, it is criminality, which should be regarded as armed robbery, not land grabbing.

“Government is even lenient with those caught. They should also be checked by law enforcement agents, we have lost our values in Nigeria, some of the lazy, jobless people installed as monarchs are also contributing to this, criminality.”

The Chairman, Oke-Abiye Community Development Association (CDA), Agbado/Oke-Odo Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Lagos State, Mr. Akeem Balogun, said the community has successfully restricted the activities of the land grabbers through the cooperation of the police.

“What we did at the CDA is that we involved the Divisional Police Officer (DPO). Our Baale happens to the chairman of all Baales in Agbado/Oke-Odo, the traditional rulers in conjunction with the Baales summoned all the land speculators and they were forced to sign an undertaken, where they were warned and this has really worked because we have cordoned them in this area.”

Meanwhile, the Lagos State House of Assembly has proposed a three-year jail term for anyone convicted of forcibly occupying a landed property belonging to another person within the state.

This came a week after the state government set up a Task Force to check the menace of land-grabbers in the state. The Legislators’ decision was the outcome of a debate on the State Properties Protection Bill, which has passed second reading in the House.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Lands and Housing, Bayo Osinowo said if the bill is passed and becomes law, it would check atrocities committed by land-grabbers in the state, including the issuance of fake certificate of occupancy.