AIG Zone 2 Petitioned over Takeover, Demolition of Ikeja Saddle Club
The Ikeja Saddle Club has petitioned the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 2, Onikan, AIG Johnson Kokumo, to look into what it described as an “unlawful invasion, forceful take over and destruction of the land and properties of Ikeja Saddle Club”, situated at Isheri Road, off Olowora, Ojodu Berger, Lagos State.
In a petition dated September 24, 2021 and signed by its solicitors, Femi Okunnu and Co, the Ikeja Saddle Club explained that in the early hours of last Thursday, heavily armed and stern looking policemen “alongside other no nonsense armed men in plain clothes without warning invaded our client’s land and property and took over the entire land and property.”
It said the officers refused to disclose where they were from and who sent them to invade its client’s land, but angrily responded that they were sent to take over the land without fail and nobody could stop them or remove them.
“Like in a movie, they rounded up all the staff including the grooms who were feeding and tending to the horses in their stable. They arrested four members of client's staff, chased away the remaining workers.”
It said the policemen equally took some staff of the club away to an unknown destination even as they systematically began to destroy the properties.
The law firm explained that: “They removed the roof of the reception area, brought in chain saw and started cutting and felling down trees in the compound. They were boasting that they were bringing in bulldozers to completely pull down, the club house, reception area and other buildings on the land and bring down and uproot all the trees on our client’s land.
“It was much later in the day that our client’s got to know that the policemen were from the office of the Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 2, Onikan, when the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) Opue Aju spoke through the mobile telephone line of one of the employee of our client who was taken away earlier in day, spoke to our client.”
It also accused the Ikumoworo Family, led by one Princess Josephine Momoh of being behind the invasion of the property.
It said Momoh “claimed to have secured a judgment of the High Court of Lagos State, delivered by Honourable Justice Candido Johnson on May 3, 2016 in a Suit No.1D/1352/2001.
“They claimed that the judgment of the High Court, Lagos declared them owners of the said land and that the said judgment has been affirmed by the Court of Appeal in a Judgment delivered on November 14, 2019.
“Further that they have sold the area of land being occupied by our client to one Alhaji who could not take possession of the property because our client is on the land.”
The law firm therefore informed the AIG that the area of land being claimed by the Ikumoworo Family was part of the 1969, 7300 Acres Global Acquisition of the Lagos State Government.