The very proactive AIG Ali Mohammed Ari has read the riot act to criminals in Zone 2 which comprises of Lagos and Ogun, promising to visit them with hell if they wait a minute further before quitting the two states that fall within his jurisdiction.
Making true his promises, AIG Ali, penultimate week, shortly after his resumption in his office at Onikan Lagos, did not waste time in arraigning a traditional ruler who is the Baale of Oremola, who had been parading himself as the Baale of Shelewu in Ikorodu. The traditional ruler has since been cooling off his heels behind the bars in Ikoyi Prisons.
Before his arraignment, the Zone 2 police zonal headquarters in Onikan, Lagos had equally Investigated and found the Baale and his accomplice liable, following several heinous allegations bordering on land grabbing and damage to property levelled against him and his principal accomplice, one Rasheed Kalejaye, and others.
The accused were charged to Court Two at the Chief Magistrate Court, Yaba, Lagos, penultimate week.
In one of the flurry of petitions filed against the Baale and his cohorts, which emanated from the office of Lordwingate Law Chambers, the traditional ruler, who parades himself as the title of” Baale of Shelewu”, but indeed the Baale of Oremola, was said to have curiously and unlawfully damaged several houses in Igbogbo area of Ikorodu in Lagos State and consequently engaged in the embezzlement of the family money for which he was grilled by detectives.
The traditional land owners, Lare Olumo family, comprising five branches, had complained that the unwholesome activities of the Baale and his comrade-in-crime, Rasheed Kalejaiye, could cause the breach of the peace. Therefore, the petitioners pleaded with the Inspector General of Police, Alkali Baba, to use his office to carry out a discreet investigation on the matter with the view to getting justice.
According to them, “we are the bonafide owners of the vast parcel of land which constitutes the subject matter of this petition by virtue of inheritance from our forebears who by the Yoruba native law, custom and acts of farming and procreation, lived and inhabited the community known as Lare Olumo Descendant Village at Igbogbo, Lagos. It was discovered that the two suspects in consonance with several other land grabbers had falsified and deceived several innocent and unsuspecting persons by fraudulently obtaining money from them despite the caveat placed by the family, stopping them from impersonating and selling family lands without valid authorization or family consent.”
The petitioners informed the IGP that, after the filing of said petition, the duo of Chief Shola Olugbode and one Mr Rasheed Kalejaiye paraded a chain of arms wielding gangs, cultists whom they both use and hire at will to commit atrocities. The family said that Rasheed Kalejaiye had sold many lands without the family consent and hurriedly fled to Paris some weeks ago to evade arrest. They said that Kalejaiye also claims to be a registered surveyor and member of the NIESV but whom upon further investigation was found to be a quack.
The petitioners asserted that, the family had held a meeting where they unanimously agreed to stop the duo of Shola and Rasheed from ever setting foot on the vast parcels of land at Lare Olumo Land at Igbogbo, and that they must not act as representatives, agents or family members for the sale or lease of the family lands at Igbogbo henceforth and if they are seen anywhere around the RES at Igbogbo, they should be arrested and charged by law enforcement agents and that all parcels of land they claimed to have sold before now, would be regarded as null and void, since none of the family members were aware of their nefarious activities and neither were they given any written or express consent whatsoever to sell those lands.
Against his boast that he had many senior police officers on his pay roll, Baale Shola Olugbode was arrested consequently arraigned.
The family informed that, “despite being invited by Oba Adeboruwa of Igbogbo for amicable settlement of the matter, the accused have ignored pleas by family members to give account and have instead continued unabated to sell, lease, gift out vast parcels of land and solely enrich themselves to the exclusion of all other family members”.
The legal practitioners representing the family told the office of the IGP that “our client needs your good office to start a forensic audit and cause deep investigations of all aspects of fraud and armed brigandage committed by the duo of Chief Shola Olugbode and Mr Rasheed Kalejaiye and order them to render account for illegal sale of family land to the tune of over N120,000,000 (one hundred and twenty million naira) and thereafter amassing various vehicles and landed property to the exclusion of other family members who are starving”.
“That one of the family members, one Mr Wasiu Fasanya, who boldly confronted them and requested that they give account of the various illegal sales of property by the duo of Baale Chief Shola Olugbode and one Mr Rasheed Kalejaiye, was brutally beaten, assaulted and his face battered, then some of the hoodlums with them were ordered by Mr Rasheed Kalejaiye to put Mr Wasiu in the boot of the vehicle he brought in and the victim had to fight his way to escape being kidnapped forcibly against his will before the duo zoomed off and escaped with their fellow hoodlums, leaving Mr Wasiu Fasanya alone in pain. “Those who accompanied Rasheed and Baale Shola to abduct Mr Wasiu Fasanya were also arrested and charged to court by a police detective, Gbenga from AIG zonal command research & planning department in Onikan”.
The petitioners stated further that “your good office should write to the provost marshall, the GOC 81 Div and the top hierarchy of the military police to arrest anybody who lays claim to the said land illegally or maliciously damages another property and all those illegally planting any military zone signposts on our vast parcel of land at Igbogbo, as the entire family is not aware of such sale to anybody”.
The police have contacted the INTERPOL to issue a ‘red notice’ for the international warrant, repatriation and arrest of a surveyor, one Rasheed Kalejaiye, who is now on the run.
A lady victim of the damage, named Beauty who was happy seeing the Baale arrested and handcuffed, had wished that the police at the AIG Zonal Command are proactive in their investigation because the accused destroyed her building’s foundation and fence and even brought new buyers to buy her land. She said that the accused had earlier denied knowing her when she reported them before they were invited by the police to Abuja and she finally gotten justice with their arrest.
Several attempts made by this correspondent to hear Baale Olugbode’s side of the story proved abortive.
-by Owolola Adebola