ONDO COMMUNITIES PROTEST DETENTION OF MONARCHS BY ALLEGED LAND GRABBERS

ONDO COMMUNITIES PROTEST DETENTION OF MONARCHS BY ALLEGED LAND GRABBERS 






AKURE – Some people from five communities in Ondo East Local Government Area of Ondo State on Tuesday stormed Governor’s Office at Alagbaka, Akure, the state capital, protesting the detention of two among their traditional rulers by some alleged land grabbers.


They said the land grabbers stormed their farmlands and began to grade their cocoa plantations with the aid of some armed persons.


According to the leader of the protesters, Mr. Kokumo Isaac Akinwande, the land grabbers employed the service of some policemen to intimidate, arrest and arraigned those who resisted them.


He said the two traditional rulers, the Olu of Igba Community, Oba Shina Olayeleb, and the Olu of Uloko Agbonden, HRH Moses Awonusi Apalara, have been sent to detention by the magistrate court based on trumped up charges by the police.


The protesters, therefore, called on Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa to intervene and see to how the traditional rulers are released immediately.


Expressing their grievances, the protesters who were mostly farmers from Italemikan, Abusoro, Ateru, Igbomowo, and Uloko Agbonden communities, displayed placards with different inscriptions such as “Free Our Obas Now,” “We Say No to Land Grabbing,” and “We Want Justice for Our Communities.”


They alleged that a man had been terrorising their communities, using police and armed men to intimidate residents and arrest those who challenged his alleged land encroachment.


Addressing journalists on behalf of the protesters, Mr. Akinwande said: the two detained monarchs — the Olu of Igba Community, Oba Shina Olayelebi, and the Olu of Uloko Agbonden, HRH Moses Awonusi Apalara — were “framed” and remanded in prison through the influence of the said land grabber.


“We are here because of Ojo Ajisafe He is a notorious land grabber. He came to our land claiming his father owns everything from Ita ila to Oboto — we have never seen him before.


“Anytime we question him, he brings police to arrest us. They take us to court the next day and send us to prison. He’s using force to intimidate us.


“Our two Obas — the Olu of Igba, Shina Olayele, and the Olu of Uloko Agbonden, HRH Moses Awonusi Apalara — are now in prison because they defended our land. We are appealing to Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa to intervene and free them.”


Another protester, who simply identified himself as Ajibola, said the communities had earlier written petitions to the governor, the Chief Judge, and the Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly but had not received any response from none of them.


He said: “We don’t want violence or crisis in our land. That is why we came peacefully to seek government intervention. We just want justice and for our traditional rulers to be released.”


The protesters, therefore, called on the state government to probe the alleged land grabbing and harassment by the suspect and his backers.


However, the state government is yet to respond officially to the protest as at the time of filing this report.


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