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Victims of demolished houses in Ajegunle/Araromi community, Makun in Sagamu Local Government area of Ogun state, have accused the state government of forcefully removing them from their ancestral homes and illegally acquiring their land for a Chinese company.
Officials of the state Bureau of Lands and Survey accompanied by armed policemen had two weeks ago stormed the community pulling down houses and commercial buildings.
The residents lamented that the state government, with the demolition of their houses have "wiped" them out of their ancestral homes.
Addressing journalists in Abeokuta on Thursday, a representative of the community, Olufemi Olatunde Ogunleye alleged that, the government demolished their houses after selling their land to a Chinese company for industrial purpose without paying them compensation.
Ogunleye, who described the demolition as a "rape of justice", accused the government of demolishing 20 houses despite a court injunction refraining it from carrying out the demolition exercise.
He alleged that the demolition of their houses was a "deliberate attempt by the government to forcefully take over and allocate our inheritance to foreigners in the name of financial gain".
He lamented that, the affected residents lost all their belongings worth millions of naira as the agents of government prevented them from removing their properties before commencing the demolition exercise.
Ogunleye demanded the reconstruction of their houses and compensation for the damages.
"This is a rape of justice. Some of us cannot even claim our place of origin again, it is like we are being wiped-off of the planet earth.
"The unlawful acquisition of land and destruction of properties not only disrupts the lives of individuals and families, but also undermines the principles of justice and fairness that our society is built upon.
"The demolition also underscores the flagrant disregard of rule of law demonstrated by agents and agencies of government who are supposed to be respecter and defender of law.
"We were reliably informed that the Chinese national, one Mr Felix, through his consultant who retired from the ministry of lands in Abeokuta heavily bribed the government officials to carry out this dastard act after they misled Mr Governor to signed a demolition order.
"As a law abiding citizens, we have tried to maintain peace and it was on this ground that we seek redress in a competent court of jurisdiction which granted us an injunction refraining the government from further action on the land, but the officials of government ignored this and threw the rule of law and court decision into the winds.
"Despite documents given to us by these same government agencies and our massive support for Governor Dapo Abiodun since 2015, we are terribly pained that the only reward this government could give back in return of our support and loyalty is destruction of our hard earned investment and forcefully taking over our family ancestral land to gift to foreigner", Ogunleye said.
But, reacting to the allegations, the Director General of Bureau of Lands and Survey, Segun Fowora insisted that the government had not broken any law in demolishing the houses.
Fowora described the victims as "illegal occupants" of government land, saying the government had given the residents repeated stop orders which they ignored.
"They have been given repeated stop orders, they have no ownership over the land, they have no documents and no planning permission.
"There was never a court order refraining us, nothing was served on this ministry on that particular site. They were told repeatedly by this bureau that they cannot build on the land that does not belong to them, but they continued to do so with impunity, claiming they know people at the top", Fowora said.
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