Lawyer allegedly hires soldiers , thugs to beat, forcefully evict landlord , occupants from Lagos Ebute Metta homes

Barely one week after Lagos Mainland Ebute Metta residents   and their landlord sent an  SOS to FG, others over eviction threat, their worst fear hit on them hard as at early as 5am on Saturday, they were forcefully evicted from No. 17 Desalu Street Ebute-Metta West, Lagos.

Obviously, their Save-our-souls to the Federal and Lagos State governments over  alleged planned forceful eviction from their home were not taken seriously following which as they were fast asleep, soldiers, gun and cutlass wielding thugs stormed the 50 years  apartment, beat and  chased the sleepy occupants as the hired soldiers and thugs went on to loot and destroy property of the occupants residents said.

It was also gathered that the hired soldiers abducted the landlord of the property one Mr. Olusegun Farodode while he was fast asleep to an unknown destination in order for them to actualise the forced demolition, residents said.

Mr. Faradode one of administrators of the house said he as well as his wife and other occupants were beaten mercilessly by the hired soldiers.

He said ” I was fast asleep in my room with my wife when about 5am, we started hearing strange noise. Before I could get out of bed, some soldiers held me and dragged me. They started hitting me. They said I was the trouble maker. They brought me out and went to ransack the apartments to chase everyone out. As I was trying to call on my mobile phone, they collected the phone and dragged me into a vehicle. I looked around and  saw  thugs with cutlasses and guns surrounding the house and threatening to kill anyone. The soldiers drove me from the house to Oshodi area that early morning and left me on the road. One of them gave me slippers and they drove off. By the time I succeeded in getting back to the house from Oshodi, they have chased, demolished and beaten the occupants. My room and over 16 other apartments having men, women, children and the elderly were demolished with a caterpillar tractor they brought. The occupants were not allowed to take a pin. At the moment, they are outside in this cold weather with nowhere to go”.

It was gathered that the police authority  arrested one Alhaji Kazeem and have invited one Barr.  Mariam Sosina over their role in the forced demolition and eviction.

When contacted Barr. Sosina said she is the owner of the house.

She said ‘ That property is mine. I bought it for N30million from the family seven years ago. I have the land paper. Mr. Segun refused to vacant the property. I have a PhD in law not from Nigeria but from the West Indies. If you publish anything against me, I will sue you and your newspaper”.

In a petition to the FG and IGP, Mr  Faradode, said: “The property belonged to my late father. I was born and bred in the house with other siblings and relatives. That house is our family house and has been ours for over 50 years. When my father died, my elder brothers started managing the house. I am one of the four administrators of the house and since my brother died,  Barr. Sosina came up to say that she bought the property from our late brother for N30 million. Neither me nor my lawyer signed any documents or permitted, by writing or word of mouth, that I was a party to the sale of the house.

“My brother whom she  claimed sold it to her is dead. Instead of her going through the court, she  used soldiers, thugs, armed with lethal weapons, to forcefully evict me and other occupants”

A human right activist Mr. Musbau Agbodemu expressed sadness over the forced demolition and eviction of the occupants. ” As I  am talking to you, the occupants and landlord with children and elderly have come to seek justice. They  are now rendered homeless. Is Nigeria a Banana Republican that people will resort to self help and take the laws into their hands?  We understand that the matter of the sale of the house  is in the court so why descending  to forcefully evict  people while they are sleeping, injured them and  their rights are abused despite the fact that they saw this coming and they reached out to government and police yet nothing was done to stop this forced demolition and eviction.

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