Crisis brews in Ile-Epo market over land ownership

By Innocent Anaba

LAGOS —ONE of the busiest markets successful Lagos State, Ile-Epo Oja Market, is connected the brink of chaos arsenic a bitter onshore ownership quality threatens to spiral into full-scale violence.

The beneficiaries of the property of the precocious Ajayi Bello person raised the alarm implicit what they described arsenic “a calculated and unsafe attempt” by hoodlums and onshore grabbers to forcibly reclaim shops and parts of the market, contempt a valid tribunal judgement affirming their ownership of the land.

In a petition, Olusola Odetola, Sherifat Soyoye (née Bello), and Kehinde Shehu (née Bello) called connected Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun, and the Chairman of Agbado/Oke-Odo LCDA, Prince Abiodun Ejigbadero, to intervene urgently to forestall a breakdown of instrumentality and order.

“We person a valid tribunal judgment. After the judgment, possession was validly taken. Even erstwhile the different parties returned to tribunal to acceptable it aside, their 5 abstracted suits were dismissed for deficiency of merit. We besides person Certificates of Occupancy.

“These are outright lies. We person nary plans to merchantability immoderate shops successful the market. This misinformation is creating hostility and unrest among traders,” they insisted.

The household besides urged tenants not to autumn for the antics of the onshore grabbers, but to attack them straight for the outgo of their rents and different morganatic obligations.

The spot has been the taxable of prolonged litigation.

In Suit No. ID/8649LMW/2019, Justice Y. Oshoala of the Lagos State High Court delivered a judgement connected December 18, 2023, granting the claimants ownership of the 1.310-hectare onshore on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.

The judgment, enforced connected May 27, 2024, affirmed their statutory close of occupancy and restrained the defendants, David Famuyiwa, Akinwumi Odeyemi, and Olugbenga Sogbamu (representing Agbado/Oke-Odo LCDA and Alimosho Local Government) from further interference.

But contempt the subsisting tribunal order, the household alleged that the defendants’ agents and hired thugs person continued to harass, intimidate, and violently invade the market.

The increasing hostility has enactment traders connected edge. Many described the ambiance arsenic “dire and frightening,” with immoderate youths reportedly mobilising to support their shops and stalls, a concern that could rapidly degenerate into bloodshed if information agencies bash not enactment swiftly.

“We fearfulness that this concern whitethorn pb to unit and avoidable nonaccomplishment of lives and spot if thing is done. This is wherefore we are calling connected the Inspector-General of Police, the Lagos State Government, and the LCDA president to intervene immediately,” the household warned.

The station Crisis brews successful Ile-Epo marketplace implicit onshore ownership appeared archetypal connected Vanguard News.