Dr. Saheed Abdulahi, also known as ‘Ibile,’ the founder of Harmony Garden and Estate Development Limited and Ibile Auctioneers and Recovery Limited, has claimed that the Chairman of the Lagos State Taskforce is involved in land grabbing and profits from it.
The businessman further claimed that CSP Jejeloye is a land grabber disguised as a police officer who is attempting to steal his investment.
During a press conference in Lagos, Ibile, as he is commonly known, stated that the Taskforce Chairman and his officers have not only disregarded a substantial court order requiring all parties to maintain the status quo on the case, pending not only the transfer of the case file to the Office of the DPP but also until the suit is resolved by any court of law in Nigeria.
The Special Offences Mobile Court in Lagos also ordered that the nominal complainant, as well as the Chairman of the Lagos State Task Force, CSP Jejeloye, and any officer(s) of the Task Force, refrain from encroaching on the subject matter of the suit.
Ibile, on the other hand, claimed that Jejeloye disobeyed the court order. According to him, the tale is centered on a bitter land dispute in Lagos’ Eyin-Osa neighbourhood, where Ibile’s company, Harmony Garden and Estate Development Limited, has invested nearly N700 million in a property.
The controversy began with the accusation that the Lagos State government directed the task force to allow one promoter, whom Ibile claims is a well-known land squatter, to take ownership of the property.
He also said that the police are accusing him of terrorism, kidnapping, and land grabbing, despite the fact that he was merely attempting to protect himself from an assassin hired to force him to sell the properties he had invested in.
He did, however, point out that the land in question is not government-owned, but rather a government-resettlement land. Despite Ibile’s legal possession and a court order preserving the status quo, the task force allegedly supported the land grabber’s efforts.
According to Ibile, CSP Jejeloye used a variety of approaches to force him to give up his property.
He further said that the police have charged him with alHe stated that land grabbers who were using Jejeloye to scare him used measures such as arrests, threats, and even the involvement of an accused hired assassin known as Esho Olobo, who attempted to take his life.
“Esho Olobo confessed that he was hired by a popular promoter and land grabber and produced evidence of payment between them. He actually shot at me, but I was able to overpower him by the grace of almighty God and held him down. By the time I brought him out, the Mobile Policemen with me and some members of the community had arrested six other persons and stripped them naked.
“Jejeloye is using a promoter to claim and sell the proceeds of his land-grabbing acts. He filed a lawsuit against me to prove I an investor, not a land grabber. I am also challenging him to clear his name from these investigations.
“He’s circulating falsehoods about me; much of what you see online is fabricated to tarnish my brand ‘Harmony Garden’ and my reputation. I invite anyone with evidence of undocumented property payments to approach me.
The video on me has been manipulated. I wasn’t arrested by Jejeloye; I voluntarily met with the Commissioner of Police. I had already petitioned that our matter should be taken away from Jejeloye and given to a neutral person to carry out the investigation. They are demolishing my properties without court orders, handing them to those involved in land grabbing.”
