In an attempt to execute Court judgment on the disputed Kelebe-Omu land, members of Kelebe-Omu Landowners Association were again forcefully stopped and chased out of their land by men of the Nigerian Army.
Today 20th March, when the landowners gathered and attempted to take fresh action in line with the judgment of Osun State High Court to take possession of their rightful land from the Nigerian Army, some fully armed military officers, suspected to come from Engineering Command in Ede, Osun State in their uniform on Thursday stormed the land and stopped the ongoing action of clearing the land.
It was reliably gathered that representatives from 45 family compounds across Osogbo and Olorunda local government areas of Osun State, converged in their numbers at Kelebe Area (part of the disputed land), Olu-Omo junction along Iragbiji Road in Osogbo to monitor the clearing, but immediately the bulldozer operators kick-start the clearing, some armed uniform men with AK-47 stormed the areas and stopped the process.
All efforts to let them know that they were just executing the court judgement proved abortive as they insisted that the work must stop immediately, threatening to shoot anybody who failed to vacate the land.
While flagrantly disobeying court order, the Journalists and some members of the landowners who were also recording the scene were rough-handled and molested by soldiers, trying to seize their cameras, phones and other gadgets.
Meanwhile, Kelebe-Omu Land Owners Association through their counsel promised to file a contempt of court suit against the Nigeria Army over what it described as a continued “trespass”.
Mr Faruq Muhamme, Counsel to the Association described the conduct of the military men as illegal and a contempt of the court, stating that he will soon approach the court to file a contempt against the Army.
In his words; “We’re here to implement the judgment of the Court on this matter. Only for the Army officers to storm here and stop us. This act is illegal and we shall be filing a contempt of the court against them.”
Muhammed also reported that up till date, no appeal has been filed on judgment as the time has elapsed
The action of the land owners is targeted towards the judgment of the Osun State High Court sitting in Ile-Ife, mandating the Kelebe-Omu land owners association to repossess their land from the Nigerian Army.
It worth noting that the Osun State High Court on January 10, 2023, had in a judgment delivered by Justice Ayoola, directed the Nigerian Army should vacate the disputed land and pay the sum of N200,000,000 to Kelebe-Omu land owners association as damages.
In his address, Chief Amodu Akanbi, the Chairman of the Kelebe-Omu land owners association and Oluponna of Osogbo disclosed to journalists that men of the Nigerian Army came to disrupt the enforcement of the January 10th 2023 Court judgment on the land, noting that all documents relating to the court judgment have been forwarded to the office of the Chief of Army Staff and the Nigerian Army headquarters, Abuja, including Ede Barack.
He buttressed his point by adding that the action of landowners is to execute the Warrant of Possession by the Osun State High Court since the Nigerian Army headquarters had acknowledged the court judgment, included that this is the second time that armed soldiers will come and harass landowners on their rightful owned land.
According to Chief Amodu “We are making this known to the public that men of the Nigerian Army always threatening to kill us any time will attempt to go back to our ancestral lands as ordered by the Court of law.
“We are here working on our land while three armed men of the Nigerian Army came with guns to stop the tractor and dragged us away. We have engaged surveyors who are here to measure the land as ordered by the court. The intimidation by the Army is too much but we will never relent in taken possession of what belong to us ”
According to Journalists this issue had earlier been reported, stated that the landlords in January protested to the Osun State Government Secretariat and House of Assembly where the Speaker, Adewale Egbedun assured that the matter would be looked into.
