Residents panic over alleged invasion of community
Residents of Ijere in Ogun State say they have yet to recover from the shock of an attack on their community.
They said some assailants dispossessed them of their valuables and ordered them to vacate their houses.
FORUM gathered that public notices had earlier been pasted on residences in the community, telling the dwellers that their property had been taken over.
It was learnt that the attackers, suspected to be land grabbers, stormed the neighbourhood on March 9, as the residents had initially disregarded the notices on the ground that they lawfully bought their property from one Akinyemi Ogundimu Family.
The family's lawyer, I.O. Akinfewa of Sola Ojutalayo Chambers, in a petition to the Ogun State Commissionner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, dated March 22, 2017, urged the command to intervene.
He said the conduct of the attackers contravened sections 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 of the Prohibition of Occupation of Landed Properties, Armed Robbery, Kidnapping, Cultism and other Related Offences Law, 2016, which prohibited forcible entry and takeover of land in Ogun State.
"We therefore appeal to you sir (CP) to use your good offices to make the intruders to face the music for their criminal acts and gross violation of the law.
"It is imperative that they should be prosecuted for their offending acts in order to pass a message to the society that the government is serious about the enforcement of the aforesaid law," the petition, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent, read in part.
