The Lagos Police Command has categorically debunked claims that men of Area J Command were involved in the alleged attack on some residents of Igbogun community in Ibeju-Lekki area of the state.
The State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Bala Elkana said operatives were not deployed to support any family involved in land dispute in the said community.
“Policemen from Force headquarters in Abuja only came to the community to investigate a petition,” he emphasised.
He further maintained that policemen attached to the Lagos Command “will never participate in any land dispute; therefore, we are not involved in the matter at all”.
Meanwhile, the Bello Ayo family involved in the land dispute also affirmed that policemen from Area J Command did not throw its weight behind them to reclaim their ancestral landed property in the community.
In a statement the family’s counsel, Nix Solicitors issued, men of the Area Command invited to support them in affirming their right to their inherited land from some customary tenants.
The statement read in part, “Policemen from Force headquarters in Abuja were erroneously passed off for men of Area J Command by the family’s adversaries. The matter was duly assigned to officers to investigate the matter following a petition by the family to the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu.”
It clarified that after carrying out necessary documentation at the Lagos Police Command, the Abuja team of policemen moved to Igbogun community where four men were arrested and granted bail immediately after their statements were taken at Area J Command, the operational base of the policemen from the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), Abuja.
It continued, “It is patently clear that the arrests were falsely misconstrued to have been effected by the Area Commander of Area J Police Command, Mr. Gbolahan Olugbemi, an Assistant Police Commissioner (ACP).”
‘’It is trite law and well known by the author that communities don’t own land. Land is vested in families which is administered and managed by the principal head of a family and not a community as falsely alleged (in the story).”
The family, in the letter, described the claim as false. “It is therefore false and a legal aberration to claim that Igbogun land belongs to the community. The area and expanse of land known, lying and situate at Igbogun belongs to Bello Ayodele, Ojumiri and Odufuwa families, jointly and severally has been so decided by the Supreme Court of Nigeria as it was then called in Suit number 252/1933 between Bello Ayo, Odufuwa and Ojumiri versus Dada and Obi”.
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