Daily Independent Online.
*
Thursday, July 01, 2004.
Respite for Onilekere residents
By Victor Ebimomi
reporter, Lagos
Respite may have come the way of about 350 residents
of an estate at Onilekere
(formerly known as Sunday Farm) behind Cement Bus-stop Dopemu-Agege as
the legal battle over ownership of the expansive domain may now delay their
planned eviction.
Last
month the residents occupying the 50 chalets and 22 boys quarters in the estate
had raised alarm that they were about being evicted by the “new
owner” of the estate, who they simply referred to as Oniwaya. According
to the residents, he effectively took possession of the land in 2002 after
winning a protracted legal battle spanning more than a decade with the
“former owner”, Mr. Sunday Omolere Ikuomola.
They alleged that after taking possession of the
estate, he came to collect rents and they paid without problem. They however
added that months later, it was discovered that the land were being
systematically sold without even quit notice issued to them.
What irked the tenants, according to those who spoke
with Daily Independent was the fact that the buyers were taking possession of the land
“with the occupiers and their property”, which they maintained was
contrary to the order of things as far as tenants/landlord relation was
concerned. They equally maintained that the rents paid by majority of them were
yet to expire.
“Honestly we are not contesting the land, what
we are just saying is that we should be given enough time to look for somewhere
else to live with our families. Having lived here for so long, we deserve at
least quit notices so that we can prepare ourselves”, the Chairman of the
residents association, Mr. Godwin Akpan said.
Several visits to Oniwaya house did not yield any
fruit as he was said to have gone out on each occasion. During a visit to the Estate, it
was however observed that houses numbered 127 and 128 were already surrounded
by a building plan while a church service by members of the Redeemed Christian
Church of God (RCCG) was in progress. It was later gathered that the church had
already bought that plot and “that was why they surrounded the buildings
with foundation and conducting services there irrespective of the fact that
people still live in the buildings”.
But after many skirmishes between the occupiers of the
buildings and the church, it was learnt that the church is now negotiating for
compensation while the resident association was said to have contacted a human
rights lawyer to bail them out of their predicament.
But as all these were happening and a cloud of
uncertainty hovers over the occupiers of the estate with apprehension taking
grip of the them, a new twist that may serve as a respite for them was added to
the logjam as the family of Momodu Mosesa headed by the Baale of Onilekere,
High Chief Sabitu A. Bakare is now challenging the Oniwaya in court over the
estate.
A public notice circulated and signed by the head of the
family read in part “any person or group of persons that deal with any
person in respect of this property risk imprisonment for contempt of court. You
are advised to stir clear of the lands pending the end of litigation”.
The legal tussle, which has reportedly taken them to, an Ikeja High court still
continues.
