Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tunji Bello (left); Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN) and Assistant Inspector General of Police, Hakeem Odumosu during a meeting between the Lagos State government and stakeholders of the Magodo Phase II land tussle, at the Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja…yesterday.<br />

Lawyer says report on dispute misleading Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, yesterday, pledged fairness, justice, transparency and equity in resolving the Magodo Phase 2 land dispute, to ensure a win-win situation for all parties. Sanwo-Olu stated this, yesterday, during a stakeholder meeting with residents of Magodo Phase 2 Estate and members of the police force from the office of the Inspector General of Police.

The governor said the committee set up by the state government will begin work soon to identify available plots of lands in Shangisha and allocation will be made in a mutually agreeable location. He noted that the de-escalation of Police movement around Magodo will be done and the peace, which the area is known for, would be assured.

The Chairman Shangisha Land Owners, Adebayo Adeyiga said they have agreed with the Lagos State governor over his promise to settle the dispute amicably. Recall that armed policemen, who were acting on the alleged orders of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, had laid siege to Magodo Phase II Estate following the execution and takeover of property in the estate based on a Supreme Court order. MEANWHILE, counsel to Shangisha Landlords Association, Deji Fasusi (ESQ) has debunked report of a national daily (Not The Guardian) that Police CSP deployed to Magodo by Malami, Inspector of Police (IGP) defied Sanwo-Olu openly, stating that the narrative of the report was misleading. Fasusi added that the report has the trappings and markings of a hatchet job to pit the populace against legitimate beneficiaries of a court judgment and an agency of the government saddled with the responsibility to ensure that same is enforced no matter whose ox is gored. In a statement issued yesterday, the lawyer said his clients’ attention was drawn to the deliberate falsehood being reported by the newspaper and the very obvious attempt by some fifth columnists to discredit the ongoing attempt by the judgment creditors in suit SC/112/2002 to execute a valid court judgment on the land in Magodo-Shangisha scheme. Fasusi stressed that the newspaper has continually used words like ‘suspected land-grabbers’ to identify or tag the judgment-creditors. He noted that in its publication on January 5, 2021, the newspaper stated that, for days, policemen who accompanied suspected land grabbers and members of a family who had planned to demolish property in the choice estate to execute a supreme court judgment have besieged the estate, and the development has caused commotion at the estate as landlords and tenants panicked over their fate.

“As a respected daily, one would have expected that the newspaper, as a member of the respected fourth estate, will do its findings in the overall benefit of the public in whom there is a corresponding right to give and receive information. The newspaper has neither approached these suspected land grabbers for their side of the story nor have they reached out to them in other form to have a balanced report. “It is clear to see their bias and nonchalance, their selective reportage and penchant to peddle one-sided narratives to suit their not-too-well disguised intention. No wonder the credibility of their reports have remained suspect in recent times and while it is not in our place to say what we have long suspected that the newspaper appears to have become an available or a willing ally/or tool in the hands of the highest bidder, their latest onslaught or diatribe against the Shangisha Landlords Association is a sad reminder of how low the newspaper has sunk and is glaringly failing in its sacred duty to itself and the society at large,” Fasusi said.