HURIWA demands immediate release of Lagos based businessman from prolonged detention
Oru Leonard
Frontline Civil Rights Advocacy group: Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has condemned the arbitrary arrest and illegal detention of a Lagos based Prominent businessman and the Chief Executive Officer of a leading Real Estate firm in Lagos: Hon. Saheed Abdullahi Mosadoluwa. He has been in the custody of the police since January 21st 2024 at the notoriously lawless Police detention facility formerly known as SARS.
In a press briefing on the growing legal saga, Harmony Gardens and Estate Development Ltd has issued a pre-action notice to Oba Sikiru Adetona, the Awujale of Ijebu, Land, Ogun State, alongside Oba Kamarudeen Animashaun of Epe, Lagos State and others are being accused of masterminding the prolonged illegal detention of the said business mogul. The notice warns against alleged continuous trespass, using his influence with the Inspector general of police to forceful taking over on Harmony Garden and Estate Development Ltd’s investment in Eyin-Osa Resettlement through the IRT officer currently on the land while the IGP is Using already concluded case in Dotun Hassan frivolous petition to detain the company owner in person of Hon. Audullahi Saheed Mosadoluwa.
Harmony Garden and its sister companies, real estate entities, claim investments running into billions of Naira in Eyin-Osa, Yegunda, and Abomiti resettlement scheme. The pre-action notice accuses Oba Sikiru Adetona, Oba Kamarudeen Animashaun, and the Eyin-Osa Resettlement Committee of criminal conversion and reselling 94 hectares of land to various entities while they are presenting the owner who geniuely acquired from the Eyin Osa statutory owners as landgrabber after the failed attempt in using Shamsudeen Oluwo to assassinate him and also the Task force frivolous cases.
The company asserts its legal right to the land, emphasizing that the purchased land holds a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) – No: 33/33/2022. The pre-action notice accuses the defendants of conspiring with the police hierarchy, specifically mentioning IGP Egbetokun, to forcefully take over the land and detain the company director under the guise of an ongoing investigations. All the cases are already investigated, charges to court and some have already take over by the Attorney General office.
The letter accuses Oba Kamarudeen Animashaun and others of causing divisions by reselling the resettlement land that their subjects have already sold and claims that the Eyin-Osa Resettlement Committee, including the Oba’s son, Idris Animashaun, is complicit in these actions. It alleges that the Eyin Osa commitee have sold land to different real estate companies, creating conflicts among investors and now using the civil cases of Awujale vs Iposun in which the Kakanfo to Awujale boasted at palace of Kabiyesi Oloja that $50,000 collected from Obembe real estate was to bribe a judge who give judgement in the case that doesn’t link Eyin Osa Government Ressettlement Land at all.
The pre-action notice asserts that Harmony Gardens will resist any form of intimidation, threats, or manipulation and will protect its investment through all legal means even at seeming ridiculous when the I.G.P Kayode Egbetokun has subject his office to be a tool for landgrabbinf . It accuses Oba Sikiru Adetona of criminally converting and forceful taking over part of the company’s 94 hectares of land to sell and that of 15 acres to Obembe Properties and attempting to frame the managing director of Harmony Gardens while IGP deplore men of IRT under DC Sanusi attached to DIG, DFI to forcefully take over while the company MD was kept under the STS on hiding under investigating Dotun Hassan frivolous petitions which all have been investigated and charge to court
The letter concludes by urging Oba Sikiru Adetona to use his royal duties to resolve the land dispute or face legal actions within the ambit of the law. Copies of the notice were sent to the Attorney General of Lagos, the Chairman of Eyin Osa Resettlement Committee, and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Egbetokun.
The company claimed that the I.G.P give directives to different police formation not to investigate the company counter petition on landgeabbing by Awujale, Mike Utomi and Veritasi despite the different court orders and ruling and even threatening to withdraw the company security securing the estates
As tensions rise, this legal battle promises to be a complex and protracted affair, with implications not only for the parties involved but also for the broader real estate landscape in the region. The coming days may shed light on how this dispute will unfold in the courts.
(HURIWA Media)
Photo Credit: Peoples Daily
