New Telegraph

Magodo invasion: Again, residents protest police siege on estate

 

Vehicular and human movements have been grounded in the early hours on Tuesday, as residents of Magodo Phase II Estate in Lagos stormed the main gates and roads in protest over large presence of armed policemen in the estate.

Recall that on Tuesday, December 21, 2021 some persons, described as miscreants acting on the directive of land creditor, Chief Adeyiga, and court bailiffs, invaded the estate with the aim of taking over the properties following purported court order ceeding the land to Adeyiga’s.

Consequently, again, on Tuesday, Executives of the Magodo Residents Association (MRA) ordered the two main gates leading into the estate shut inorder to prevent any form of invasion.

However, residents and other people were allowed to go out of the estate, but were prevented from entering.

Residents displayed placards of various inscriptions to express their displeasure.

They queried the presence of the policemen who were said to have been in the estate since last month.

Some of the inscriptions read: “Lagos Attorney-General prosecute those involved in illegal invasion of Magodo Phase 2 you promised”, “Magodo Phase 2 has been under siege of the IGP’s anti-riot police squad for three weeks.”

Chairman of the association, Banjo Osinubi, in his reacting to the development, said: “We called our people out to protest this morning.

“Over 50 policemen are living within the estate. We want the police out of our estate.

“There is no cases of kidnapping, rioting, but why are they still here? We want them out of our estate.

“We want to live in peace. This is a business between Lagos State government and the Adeyiga family.

“We are under seige; the police have been here for two weeks, they came in December to take possession of properties on behalf of Adeyiga family and others.

“Since then, we’ve gotten in touch with prominent personalities to intervene and get the police off our estate.

“We are victims, even inside our own homes. The police have been here. They are very restless.

“Just imagine there is an altercation between a resident and the police. The easiest way to avoid any of such scenario is to detach the police officers back to Abuja.

“We’ve allowed people to go out, but we are protesting this morning to let the world know what’s going. We are supposed to be at work, but we want the whole world to know what’s happening at Magodo.

“The governor spoke with me yesterday (Monday), and he said he’s ontop of it. He has promised to address the situation.

“The Commissioner of Police last week sent the DCP Ops to supervise the withdrawal of troops but they claimed they are yet to get signal. We learnt the police were drafted from Abuja.

“Our immediate concern is to get the police out of the estate for us to leave in peace.

“We need the government to do the needful to get the family off our neck.

“About four to five years ago, they did it, and now again this year, they want to do it.”

Earlier, a statement by the Publicity/Social Secretary of MRA,  read in part: “Dear Residents,

Due to the recent events within the estate since Tuesday 21st December 2021 of which some persons under the Adeyiga and others court case with the Lagos state government and the siege by the over 100  Police men, kindly be informed that as at today which is day 3, the Policemen are still within the estate and claim they haven’t been instructed to leave.

“To this end, we advise all residents to please be clam and not engage as the Executives and Lagos State Government are working on a solution for all.

“Also, MRA is working on all fronts to ensure comfort for its members.

“We want to use this medium to express our appreciation to all residents that also came out to support the protest  yesterday and once again regret all inconvenience as this matter affects us all.

“We are also in talks with our legal team to state our position as well.”

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