An Ogun State developer, Kunle Owolabi, has raised the alarm over what he described as intimidation and harassment by gun-wielding men allegedly threatening him over his landed property in the Denro community, Ifo Local Government Area of the state.
Speaking with PUNCH Metro on Friday, founder of Rigini Homes Limited, Owolabi said the company acquired 14 acres of land in 2019, out of which 11 acres and four plots had been duly documented and issued special numbers.
He lamented that the investment, which he said had gulped over N1bn with a projected return of about N8bn, was largely funded with money pooled from Nigerians living abroad.
Owolabi said repeated efforts to get the intervention of the state’s land grabber unit in Abeokuta to arrest those behind the alleged harassment had yielded no results.
“We bought some landed property at Denro, and we have properly titled documents. We even successfully secured special numbers on the property.
“The total land size is 14 acres, but we have only been able to complete documentation for 11 acres and four plots. What we have spent on the land, including funds from Nigerians in the diaspora, is over N1bn, and we were expecting returns of about N8bn.
But all that hope is now being threatened by intimidation and harassment from land grabbers,” he said.
He explained that the trouble began in November when unknown persons allegedly invaded the property overnight and demolished the corner pillars marking the land.
“They did it at night when residents would not notice. We have people in the community who help us monitor the land, but when we asked around, everyone denied knowledge of who did it,” Owolabi said.
According to him, after investigations within the community yielded no results, the company spent about N1.6m to reconstruct the pillars, only for them to be destroyed the following day.
“To our surprise, before the next morning, the same thugs invaded the property and destroyed everything again,” he added.
Owolabi said he subsequently reported the matter to the police, but the situation worsened afterwards.
“This was when they started showing their faces, wielding guns and other dangerous weapons. We were even advised by some people to tip them. We were told that once we gave them money, they would stop harassing and intimidating us on the property,” he said.
He further alleged that his petition to the land grabber unit in Abeokuta was repeatedly postponed, adding that officers who eventually showed up on Thursday left without addressing the issue.
“They came unannounced and later claimed they left because they could not see us, whereas we were just around the corner,” he said.
Owolabi stressed that several subscribers had invested heavily in the estate, insisting that the land was legally acquired after due diligence.
“We have a lot of people who have invested their money in this property. We followed all due process to acquire the land,” he said.
He appealed to authorities to intervene, warning that persistent cases of land grabbing and Omo Onile activities were discouraging genuine investors.
“We want people in authority to help us address these challenges. It is getting to a point where land grabbing is discouraging investors from putting money into real estate,” Owolabi added.
Contacted for an update on the case, the Ogun State Police Command spokesperson, Oluseyi Babaseyi, had yet to respond to a WhatsApp message sent to his mobile phone on Sunday.
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