A firm, Labionar Services Ltd, has sought the intervention of the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, over alleged threats to lives by gun-toting land grabbers in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
Describing land grabbing as a form of terrorism quietly practised without adequate consequences from law enforcement agencies, the judiciary and the state government, the firm called on the IGP to urgently intervene in a dispute over plots of land located in Isiu under Imota division of Ikorodu Local Council.
Speaking on behalf of the firm, Dr Alaba Victoria Sadiq said that on October 30, 2025, five of their surveyors and Fr Onyebuchi Martin, sent by the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos to inspect a portion of land for the Catholic Church, arrived at the site at about 6:30 p.m. and reported that someone approached them with a gun and threatened to wipe them out if they did not leave immediately.
According to her, the station officer of Imota Police Station, who had led officers to protect the workers, later called to say that the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), acting on orders from above, had instructed him and his team to leave the site. The officer subsequently reported developments to her.
Sadiq said that shortly after the police left, one of the alleged land grabbers returned with a gun, threatening to harm everyone if they did not vacate the premises.
She said a petition on criminal assault, murder, kidnapping and threat to life was verbally reported to the AIG and formally submitted on November 3, 2025.
She said, “On December 22, the man with the gun and his family members came to Zone 2 to write their statements before the IPO (Henry). A police officer from the AIG’s office then asked us all to come over.”
When we arrived, the AIG was on the phone with a judge, Wasiu Animahun. He said it was a land matter, a family matter, and that we would sit down and discuss it. He assured us that none of our people would be locked up. I cut in and told the AIG that this was not a land matter but a case of gun threat that had been reported.”
She recalled that in 2015, a case of forcible entry, removal of a fence, five signs, and a borehole was reported at the Zone 2 Police Command and was prosecuted until 2023 at the Magistrate’s Court under Her Lordship, Mrs Justina Ugbomoiko, with some damages paid to the firm.
She added that the Ewegbo Royal Family, relatives of His Lordship Wasiu Animahun, instituted a suit against Labionar Services Ltd in 2015 at the High Court, Ikorodu, but the case was struck out in 2023 after they failed to provide sufficient evidence.
The court, she said, ordered that N400,000 be paid to Labionar Services Ltd before any fresh suit could be filed.
Sadiq further stated that when the matter was struck out in 2023, Her Lordship Mrs Akinkugbe reiterated that the N400,000 must be paid, but no payment was made.
She warned that Ikorodu has become a red zone for land grabbing, noting that perpetrators now use cutlasses and guns to terrorise victims and sometimes plant fetish substances on disputed land.
She appealed to the presidency, the IGP, the National Judicial Council, state and local governments, human rights organisations and the public to urgently intervene.
When contacted by phone, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone Two Command, Onikan, Lagos, Mr Adegoke Fayoade, said he had no personal knowledge of any petition alleging a threat to life in Ikorodu involving Labionar Services Ltd.
He said he could not immediately recall the petition, adding that his office receives numerous complaints daily.
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