The royal family of Itusi, claimants to Baba Ode land which is located near Ilogbo town in Ogun state, said they got more than what they bargained for on Saturday morning, when one Mayowa Olaitan opened fire on them, shooting sporadically with the aim to prevent the family members and a team of police investigators detailed from Abuja from gaining entrance into the land.
A member of the police investigation team who spoke on the condition of anonymity to journalists explained how Mayowa, a suspected land grabber in the company of his other colleagues, on sighting them with members of the family approaching the land brought out a gun and started shooting sporadically, wounding several members of the family and riddling the vehicle conveying the police with bullets.
The policeman further explained that Mayowa was overpowered after a brief gun battle between the land grabbers and the police, and a locally made double barrel gun, locally made one barrel gun, several rounds of live cartridges, and several charms were recovered from him.
The policeman said, Mayowa in his confession, said, that one Nurudeen Alau, gave him the gun, through a guy called Biggy, who is still at large and investigation is ongoing.
Speaking further on the matter, Chief Taofeek Oduasanyin, (a.k.a, Ilu), head of the Itusi royal family, said, "The police was detailed from Abuja on the heels of a petition he wrote to the State Investigation Bureau, (SIB), Abuja, after the suspected land grabbers, from Adelupo family, Ota, who came in large numbers to the land, some months back, with dangerous weapons to dislodge him and the entire family members from the land."
Speaking further, Oduasanyin said, "The Adelupo family, led by Alau Nurudeen, carried out this dastardly act, out of bitterness and deep frustration suffered from loosing four court cases over the land, both at the Magistrate and High court level, including the outcomes of all police mediation parleys held at different times in Lagos and Abuja.
However, Alhaji Nurudeen Alau, who was fingered to have armed Muyiwa Olaitan, said, "I do not know him, neither do I arm anybody, you can ask for his identification card, if he has any identifying him with me. All my workers have our company identification card.
"The truth is that we were born in Ipetu Baba Ode village, near Ilogbo, and never had any issues on that land until 2010 when they came to lay claim on Itusi land which is adjoining ours, though we contested it, but the Court graciously granted their request, by giving them ownership of that land.
"To our chagrin, they came again in 2013, to lay claim to our own part of the land which is Ipetu Baba Ode, via Iju town which is about seven kilometres apart. The case lasted four years into 2017, before we got judgment, giving us ownership of Ipetu Baba Ode, which is near Iju.
"From the testimony and explanation of Surveyor General, during court hearings a boundary has already been provided demarcating the land between Itusi which belongs to them and Baba Ode lands belonging to us.
"But the problem snowballed some few weeks ago, when they forcefully dislodged us from the land, despite a resolution meeting scheduled for April 16, in Area 10 Police Area headquarter, Abuja.
"How could it be possible for us to station our men on the same land that we have been sent away from since the last two weeks and how could we do that, when we are not even expecting that policemen will be coming there are at this time that they are occupying the place?" Alhaji Nurudeen asked.
"Oduasanyin however said, The illegal use of force by the Adelupo is borne out of fear that they will also lose the case at the Appeal court."
Nurudeen countered by saying, all the Appeals filed by the Itusi on the Ipetu Baba Ode land has been thrown out by the Appeal court.
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