Scores of residents of Alaja Phase 1, Alaja Phase 2, Isagunna, and Aponmode communities in the Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State have protested alleged forceful evictions from their property.

The residents, who are landlords and landladies, on Thursday stormed the premises of the state House of Assembly to register their grievances.

They explained that their homes have been invaded by the Mogaji (family head) of the Akinsola family, Chief Wale Oladoja, who claimed to be the real owner of the lands in the communities.

They said they have been occupying the said lands for decades, expressing surprise that someone had obtained a court injunction to evict them.

The protesters appealed to the lawmakers to rescue them from Oladoja, who had sealed off their houses since Wednesday.

One of the community leaders, Rauf Adeogun, narrated that they were summoned to a meeting where those who bought land from their forefathers would repurchase the land from the alleged original owner.

“And our father had warned us not to forcefully take back land already sold because Labi was owned by four lineages of Akinsola which are: Oju-Oyo, Oje, Idi-kan and Labiran, so the Labiran family is now the one disturbing the residents.

“We had been to the Olubadan to seek resolution of the matter, and the Olubadan had warned the ‘land grabbers’ not to forcefully take the land from the owners,” he said.

A member of the state House of Assembly representing Akinyele Constituency 1, Lekan Abiola, in his reaction, promised to call Oladoja to hear his side of the story.

Another lawmaker representing Akinyele Constituency 2, Kehinde Olatunde, said the 9th Assembly promulgated anti-land grabbing law which indicated the interest of the state government in curbing the menace, noting that this present Assembly will not allow land grabbers in the state and will make sure they face the full wrath of the law.

But Oladoja, in his reaction, said the family acted on the court judgment obtained in 2001 by the Akinsola family, who are the real owners of all the lands in Labi, to take back their land.

He added that before the action was taken on Wednesday, he had held a series of peaceful meetings with the residents of the four communities.

“My family acted according to the law of the land, because we have four to five judgements in respect to the land they are talking about. We had held peaceful meeting with the residents of the community several times, even our respected Imperial Majesty, Olubadan of Ibadanland, Ọba Mohood Olalekan Alli Okunmade II had scheduled a meeting with us for the resolution of the same matter,” he said.