The Aleniboro Community in Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara has raised alarm over the increasing insecurity and disturbance caused by a group of suspected land grabbers.
The land grabbers claimed to represent a distinguished High Chief in Ilorin.
The community, in a letter written to the Commissioner of Police in the state, sought the intervention of the security chief in addressing the matter urgently.
In the letter written by its solicitor, Y. Y. Babatunde of Y. Y. Babatunde & Co, the community said these individuals had been harassing and intimidating the community.
They disrupt construction activities and engage in criminal activities such as theft and extortion.
It attributed the contention to a long-standing land dispute between the community and the Ilorin Airport Authority, which it said the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, had helped to resolve.
“Meanwhile, the above position has for long been maintained until very recently, when community attention was drawn to the ongoing activities of the strangers.
”They claimed to be acting on behalf of the chief by harassing people over the land they bought legitimately years ago from the accredited customary owners.
“The unscrupulous activities of these strangers extend to disturbing, harassing, intimidating, and even destroying construction on the lands of those who have for long purchased their lands lawfully, but yet to start construction thereon, coupled with the fact that these lands do not fall within those wholly preserved for the Airport Authority.
“In fact, according to reliable sources, the expanse of lands exclusively well-preserved for the Airport Authority and prohibited from trespass or encroachment is being surveyed recently, on the instruction of this eminent chief,” the community said.
It noted that the continuous act of these land grabbers, which it described as criminal, was a clear contravention and violation of the mutual understanding reached before the emir.
To further worsen the situation, the community said free movement at night has become problematic in the neighbourhood, especially between 7 p.m and 8 p.m.
“In other words, the strangers have established a base for themselves within the community and have turned themselves into hoodlums, attacking, snatching phones, waylaying and collecting money from passersby at night.
“Indeed, the illegal activities and trespass of these strangers, who do not reside within the community, cannot be divorced from the recent killing of an innocent Fulani child and snatching of two cows from him.
“The case is being handled by the Adewole Police Station,” the community pointed out in the letter.
Based on this, it urged the commissioner of police as an upholder of the rule of law, to see that their lives and properties are safe and that the lawful purchasers of lands were not denied their rights.
It said the life threatening activities by the strangers must be curbed.
This, he said, would accordingly ensure that freedom and collective rights of its people is preserved, religiously guarded and guaranteed. (
