THE Deeper Life Bible Church has described it as a foul cry and calculated distortion, the misleading story that the church encroached on a so-called Omo Onile’s (land speculators) land.

Conversely, it was the so-called Omo Onile with the strong support of the group of warlords and land hustlers known as Ajagungbale under the business name Threeco Construction Company Limited, headed by one ‘Prince’ Muraino Banjoko that maliciously damaged the perimeter wall fence erected by the church and also indulged in illegal sale of land belonging to the Deeper Life Conference Centre along Lagos- Ibadan Expressway, Mowe, Ogun State.

The true story, according to the Church spokesperson, is that the so-called Omo Onile, Banjoko and his factions, trampled on court injunction and encroached on the land that had been fully paid for with every relevant documents secured and did not only break down the fence that was put up twice with the sum of N10 million and N25 million respectively, but also started selling some portions of the land, with blatant disregard to court injunction, to various gullible individuals and organisations who ignored to their peril the Golden Rule of caveat emptor (buyer beware).

According to the Chairman, Building Committee, Deeper Life Christian Ministry, Pastor Alfred Ogene: “The church duly acquired Deeper Life Conference Centre (DLCC) in two parts: (Parcel A and B) as Part 1 and Parcel C as Part 2, several years ago from different families including Esuruosho, Ogunkayode, Oyebi, Shobowale (Shodiya), which is located near Agbodi Village, Ogun State.

These land owners and vendor families were duly paid hundreds of millions of naira with the sum of N750,000,000 (seven hundred and fifty million naira) also paid to Ogun State Government for C of O. These were done in accordance to the policy of the Church as a holiness church that follows peace with all men and committed to the principle of not acquiring any man’s property without due consideration.
“Some members of the above families, sometime ago, attempted to play fraud on the church in respect of the land and went ahead to sue the church at the High Court while the court, seeing through their fraud and gimmicks threw out the suits: AB/39/2012 and AB/303/2013.”
“The church in 2008 instituted an action at the High Court of Ogun State to legally assert her ownership and prevent further trespass in Re: AB/251/08 suit: The Incorporated Trustees of Deeper Christian Life Ministry V. Commissioner of Police Ogun State and Others, which is still pending in court.”

“On January 18, 2012, the aforesaid court granted the application of the church and issued an Order of Injunction “restraining all the defendants among others from encroaching on the land” he said.

According to Ogene, a new generation from the above families and their lawyers, who did not deny in any way that the lands were rightly purchased and duly paid for, came up with the demand that the church should give back to them a large stretch of the church’s land for village extension purpose, that Deeper Life should pay to them the sum of N150 million as money for bush entry and clearing (Owo Iwoko, Owo ilagbe) and that the church should re-purchase the land at the price of N8 million per plot. Their unconstitutional demands were premised on the fact that they did not share from the initial sale of the lands.

According to one of the church’s lawyers, Nojim Tairu, their unlawful demands not-withstanding, the church known for peace, still conceded to these youths the sum of N10 million naira known as ‘peace settlement’ after series of negotiations that took place at the palace of Olu of Igbehin, Oba Festus Oluwole Makinde. However, they remained stuck to their initial demands.

Tairu and another lawyer, Ark-Stewart Itua said series of petitions had been made to the police on the issue but despite that, between January 2015 and February 2015, these youths and their agents embarked on the sale of the land again while on March 20, 2015 in company of War Lord (Ajagungbale) broke down the church wall fence measuring 1,500 metres, which was put up at the cost of N25,000,000. A few of these invaders including one Baba Kano and Baba Ibrahim were arrested and are already with the police.

Tairu said he was more worried by the action of the Police and SARS who, despite their purported attempt to broker peace, still went ahead to arrest members of the Church, Mr. Franklyn Osezua and Festus Orimolade and made them to write under duress, a statement that the church would not enter into the land.

He was also confused of the role of SARS, who accompanied the invaders on the day the fence was broken down for the second time after which a letter was written on March 25, 2015 to the Inspector-General of Police on the issue.

“Deeper Christian Life Ministry believes in law and order as well as peace with all men but will not succumb to blackmail or fold her arms while local thugs and miscreants continue to use compromised institutions and instruments to achieve their goals,” Tairu said.