The Raging Adebimpe’s Deadly War with Oba of Isheri Olofin: When the Lagos State Task Force on Land Grabbers became a Propaganda Tool for a Land Speculator.

An Editorial Note

BY the final media reportage of what the Lagos State Task Force on Land Grabbers described as a “Public Hearing” on a petition by one ‘Alhaji Shamsideen Adebimpe Lawal’ against Oba Wahab Ayinde Balogun, the Onisheri of Isheri Olofin and his people, the Kabiyesi had been simply and literally implicated as a criminal contemnor of a lawful court order that had to be reprimanded accordingly.

But it was a curious coincidence it happened this way: that while this Civics Journal (“CJ”) magazine was set for the press with the investigated report of the remote cause of deadly war, we intercepted a signal to the effect of that public hearing from the Task Force Office. To us, the signal was deemed to be a Lagos State’s action informed by a standing open threat the Alhaji Adebimpe once declared against the State government far away in Abuja.

On April 25, 2018 thereabout, the man, Adebimpe, convened a press conference to present to the public his sworn affidavit on why the Onisheri of Isheri should be dethroned by the Lagos State Government. Therein, he accused the Oba of forging the National archive’s documents with which he (the Kabiyesi) dubiously obtained a court judgment in his favour in land dispute with Idimu People.

And further in that affidavit among other weighty sundry reasons why Adebimpe thought the Oba was not fit to remain a Lagos traditional ruler, he accused the Kabiyesi and Isheri Olofin People of defying a lawful order of Appeal Court to continue “harassment, intimidation and threatening illegal forceful dislodgement of property owners affected by the judgment that was fraudulently obtained.

It was for all this Alhaji Adebimpe, there at Abuja, gave the Lagos State Government and then Governor Akinwunmi Ambode a marching order to ensure that Oba Wahab Balogun is deposed immediately. He also threatened to sue the State and the governor to enforce his wish if the duo failed to dethrone the monarch.

It was for this track of the feud’s history that this magazine caused the stop-press on the strength of the latest development that intervention signals seemed to be.

As the published outcome of that supposed ‘public hearing’, where the petioner was conspicuously absent and was never represented by his lawyer -- at least to the knowledge of all other stakeholders invited to the sitting, the Coordinator of the Task Force, Mr. Owolabi Arole, simply appeared to have only read a riot act to the Oba and Isheri Olofin Family.

In the The Nation newspaper for the avoidance of doubt about this magazine’s conclusion, the story was published thus: “Arole, who noted that (his) decision was based on the need to maintain peace in the area, urged the monarch (Oba Balogun) to desist from further causing damages to the property of the petitioner, Alhaji Shamsideen Lawal (Adebimpe) and others living there”.

And going further therefrom, the paper quoted the Task Force Coordinator, Arole, to have sternly warned that: “the Government would not tolerate any breach of the peace or any intimidation and destruction of property. (And that) violators would be visited with the full wrath of the law. Order made by court of conpetent jurisdiction must be obeyed and violators, no matter how highly placed, would be arrested and prosecuted for breach of peace”. (The Nation 13/06/2019 p41 – Parenthesis ours)

But in the holistic evaluation of the scene of that purported ‘public hearing’, the Task Force could be deemed to have willingly or innocently played a “mischievous” ball Alhaji Adebimpe had set rolling since 2016. This is the position of CJ in view of the observations of our correspondent, Eze Nwagboto, who was also at the Ministry of Justice Block, Alausa, venue of the public hearing.

From his report, it was evidential that what was published in the media could as well be a latter press statement handed down to reporters because, according to him, it did not reflect the truth of what transpired at the sitting. “The media report failed to capture the complaint protest of the representatives of the Isheri Olofin and Abisiwa families”, our correspondent so observed.

 The two families were reported to have complained to the Task Force  Coordinator that they had only been ambushed by Adebimpe with the agency serving as his new arsenal of his long standing war with Onisheri of Isheri and Isheri Olofin Kingdom as a whole.

They were reported to have expressed their displeasure that the Task Force invited them to the “so called Public Hearing” without any prior knowledge of what was amiss. “And getting here, you made this petition available to us just a few minutes ago and you are asking us to respond here and now. But  even then, where is the petionner on sit here?” as they were quoted to have queried the Coordinator.

Accordingly, our correspondent reported that there was no any public hearing in the true sense of it because the monarch’s lawyer and the head of Abisiwa Family, Alhaji Amza Ajasa. insisted that the petitioner must be at the hearing before they could respond appropriately.

But after waiting for long hours and Alhaji Adebimpe failed to turn up, the Coordinator, as reported, dispersed the gathering with a promis to reconvene the sitting when next the petitioner would be present.

While departing however, the Head of Abisiwa Family, for whom Arole resolved that the proceeding would be in Yoruba, was reported to have warned that he would no longer make himself available anymore for what he described as the antics of the petitioner. He also threatened to consult his lawyer for appropriate action over the petition.

Reacting to the media publication after the event, Alfa Isiaka Abogunloko, who is the Secretary of Isheri Olofin Township Council and also represented the Kabiyesi at the sitting, said he was disappointed at the Task Force Coordinator if the statement credited to him by the media was true.

Abogunloko said: “After he (Arole) kept us waiting for several hours with insistence that the petitioner would meet us at the hearing, we eventually departed without the presence of the petitioner, who happened to be the same Alhaji Adebimpe that had dragged us to the National Assembly before the Public Petion Committee late 2017 on this same false allegations. And what the Task Force Chairman told us was that he would get back to us for the public hearing when next the petitioner would be available.

“But the next thing we would see was the media report, where he (Arole) had simply judged Onisheri as the trouble maker and aggressor as alleged in the petition”.

From our findings however, there were claims by those who should know that Adebimpe’s lawyer had earlier been sighted at the Task Force office that day, but there was no reference to that effect by the Task Force Coordinator althrough the hours of the sitting. 

As an imperative fact checking on the part of this magazine, a message was sent to the Alhaji Adebimpe to inquire why he failed to attend the public hearing and why he failed to send a representative. There was no reply from him.

Nevertheless, Civics Journal would seem to have found the stop-press informed by the new development a worthwhile action because it made additional material needed to deepen its investigation works for a more substantial result.

Such was an observed crafty artifice with which the petition to the Task Force was constructed.

While Alhaji Adebimpe remained the manifest petitioner, the petition was constructed in a deliberate manner that would bring the three feuding parties to the land issue at the court (Olorunfemi & Abisiwa Families versus Oba of Isheri Olofin) before the Task Force.

For the avoidance of doubt, in a copy of the purported March 14 petition released to the press, which was duly signed by one Alhaji Shamsideen Adebimpe Lawal as the petitioner, the petition yet portrayed Ishau Olorunfunmi Family as the complainant victim of the alleged Onisheri’s acts of aggression.

The petition read, according to The Nation’s publication, that: “The Olorunfunmi Family alleged that the monarch (Oba Balogun) disregarded the court order by encouraging affected residents on the land to come forth for purported ratifications of their title despite the pending order”.

The newspaper then goes further to quote from the petition thus: “The petition further alleged they (Isheri Olofin Family) have continuously encroached on the lands and properties of our clients and other Idimu residents, causing chaos  and destruction in their wake by illegally evicting them from same and tranferring title to innocent third parties who are unaware of the status of the pending appeal and the order of the court that status quo must be maintained”.

But the findings of CJ revealed that the said Alhaji Adebimpe could possibly be struggling to disentangle himself from the same crime of contempt of court he had ensnared himself since 2016 with this “premeditated acts subterfuge” in simile of a pot calling the kettle black.

This flows from the track of the whole story of the war as commencing with a 2016 “Public Notice” Alhaji Adebimpe made for sales of a land in Idimu in spite of the same court order being peddled, which was issued earlier way back in 2013. See bromide of the public notice above.

And so the questions arose: 1) Who is the enigma called “Alhaji Shamsideen Alabi” as the identity used in the 2018 Abuja press conference or “Alhaji Shamsideen Adebimpe Lawal” as used in the purported recent petition to the Lagos State Task Force on Land Grabbers? 2) What could have informed or exists as the hidden fact behind this deadly war?

These are the questions the next edition of Civics Journal magazine that will reach the vendors’ tables on Monday, June 31 will unravel. While that day is only two days after the Onisheri’s celebration of his 35years coronation anniversary, we want to caution that it is only a mere coincidence that the publication date would be so. This should at least be discernible from our “Stop-press” references above.

WE MAY NOT BREAK THE NEWS BUT WE ASSURE YOU THE FACTS BEHIND THE NEWS             

About the Book of Alimosho Streets Map and Directory of Business and Social Organisations, et al

IT had been explained in the previous post – About Project Alimosho Heritages (PAH) – that the book product from the compilation of the respective ancient history of all kingdoms making up the conurbations of Alimosho Local Government as a Federal Constituency is generally entitled Coming to Alimosho: The Economy, Politics and Cultural Origin of the County. This publication is about the synopsis of each of the five-volume titles by which the component historical subjects of the book are published. But in the light of its sole strategic importance to the project, the Book of Alimosho Streets Map and Directory of Business and Social Organisations is hereby given its preeminent discussion

          The Alimosho Streets Map (ASM) is an extract from the creative handcraft product of Barlade Image Communications (BIC) with a copyright trademark of Barlade Streets Map ©(BSM). The BSM is produced by physical drawing of the component local network of streets for a simplified and readable hard copy format of Geographic Information System (GIS).

          ASM as so extracted from BSM is therefore designed as a GIS tool on the whole community of Alimosho Local Governemnt Area of Lagos State in the format of one-stop information desk. It is designed with a creative craft that compresses the entire landmass of Alimsoho into a compact size that is handy for the perm of your hand. This way, one can traverse the entire land area of Alimosho City in just a few minutes for any desired information.

          It is a subsidiary project that evolves from a mother project entitled Project Alimosho Heritages (PAH) in tandem with the former's part value as Know-Your-Customer (KYC) mobile centre. As a tool for information warehouse, PAH was in part originally designed to process the rich culture of the Alimosho natives into economic products. The products' economic values and their value-chain shall then be developed for local and national consumption, and the export potential therefrom.

        The implication is that PAH is all about collating information on the monuments, artifacts and historical heritages of the ancient time kingdoms that coalesce into the Alimosho conurbation today for Projection into their tourism potential.

        Thus while the PAH hosts and ware houses the text of historical information on Alimosho, ASM hosts the ancillary value of a compass for business navigation as much as a guide to life, living in and visitation to Alimsoho Federal Constituency.

         Therefore, the ASM as a creative handcraft that actually incorporates the physical positioning of all natural and institutional landmarks in the streets of their situation. By being creative handcraft implies that the entire network of streets map was drawn by physical deployment of cartographers to the field to make the sketch, return to office to upscale it to drawing and then transcribe into computer graphics. Hence the ASM catch phrase: If ASM could locate you (in your remotest corner), the opportunity (you have been waiting for) will find you.

         To put the purpose and value of ASM in the language of information Technology (IT) freaks, it is both a backup as much a valuable alternative to the coveted internet GPRS of the like of Google Map. While the former is about momentary lack of access to internet for whatever reason, the latter is about the numerous advantages of application features the ASM has over the internet enabled map, particularly in matters of business and products marketing planning.

         For one good instance, while the internet GIS does not enable two positions at the same time, the ASM enables you access to multiple positions at the same time. To analyse this: GIS is about a specific location in an area. If you open internet map to seek GIS on a location in Idimu, you would have to close the Idimu area map and perhaps change your location to Ikotun before you can access the GIS for Ikotun area. But with ASM, you can access the border extremities of Alimosho in the comfort of your room or office at once.

          For the part of business and economic guide, ASM expands its KYC platform with the idea of Social and Business Directory as meant to be a third party affirmation of existence of the social and business organisations in Alimosho. Nevertheless, enlistment of the organisation in the Directory is purely by formal subscription after due diligence on the organisation / business has confirmed it to be in operation at the time of the collation.

          However, the fundamental guide to the KYC positioning is that if you exist in Alimosho, you should be anywhere and everywhere Alimosho is and people should be able to find you seamlessly.

         Accordingly, ASM book becomes applicable as shoppers' guide for goods and services order placement, parents' guide for school search by short-listing, business planning and investment research, tourism and leisure activities guide, and also for cultural research endeavours.

          ASM as a veritable KYC centre for all business relationship from within and without Alimosho Federal Constituency provides the platform for market survey and evaluation for prospective business entry and business expansion. Therefore, it makes a good companion for small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) that desire growth through both the Ubiquitous Presence in the Market (UPM) and Ubiquitous Markets Presence (UMP).

Volume 1: The Cultural and Founding Origin of Alimosho from the Ancient Setting

The book is presented as a compass for way to the truth about the real tribal clan of the Yoruba race that found ALimosho.

In trying to lay a foundation for the works, the book observes that given the overriding influence of political geography Nigeria is viewed from the off shore perspective. “It becomes imperative that the original ethnic nation of Aimosho needs to be properly situated in the context of the country’s multi-ethnic mix”.

Beginning the history from origin of its name – ‘Alimosho’, the book argues that “writing the story of Alimosho should be seen to be so distinct from the history of Alimosho. It says: “The story of Alimosho is anything and everything about Alimosho LGA, depending on the author’s subject of interest. The history of Alimosho is however about, the origin of a people and the ancestral culture of the land”.

Accordingly, as the book holds it, the message content is to “shield the silent voice of minority natives, as they have become in their ancestral land, from the tyrannical loud noise of the cosmopolitan resident settlers that the political geography has positioned into the majority”.

The book thence proceeds to establish how the Alimosho’s Awori natives derived their path from Olofin’s Ode to Idumota – vis-à-vis how Alimosho makes a landlubber in the history of Eko.

However, what readers would find significantly striking about the book is the presentation of the history not in the proverbial way of writing the history of hunting according to the children of hunters, but according to both the children of hunters and the animals’. In other words, the book captures more of the lost history of Alimosho than could have been anticipated by the stakeholders.

However, the book is divided into two parts. The first part is about the mechanics of the historical origin as to the migration of the founders of the respective kingdoms from Ile-Ife, as claimed by the majority of their contemporary descendants.

Matters of the Tourism Content

This is the second part of the titled book above. It is about the cultural matters and unique artifacts that were discovered in the respective kingdoms, which are packaged into their respective tourism potential values.

Volume 2: Religions in Alimosho: Evaluating Origin, Evolutionary Growth and Impacts of Christianity and Islam

Theme of the book: Even the Cross is a heritage as so the Crescent

Kill his culture

And the Man is dead

Change his name

He’s lost in identity

Bury his language

And you murder his ancestor.

This is the epigraph with which the book opens the subject of foreign religion’s entry into the ancient native communities of Alimosho. Accordingly, discernible readers shall be quick to read it as a serial continuum to Volume 1.

The book provides general information on the impact of Christianity and Islam on both the cultural life of the natives and their physical environment, through the evolutionary growth of Alimosho from its ancient origin to this modern day.

It traces what it describes as “the violent” means of entry of these religions into Nigeria via the Southern and Northern parts respectively, using the concept of “conflict of nurtural culture with natural culture”.         In the case of Christianity, the violence is described in terms of the Siamese attachment of the London Christian Missionary Society (CMS) to the Lagos British colonial authority in the mission to overwhelm the prevailing local (natural) culture of the African environment with the foreign Christian (innate nurtural) culture in the white man. But readers would by themselves find to what needful advantages that battles of cultural conflicts have become today. It narrates this with the invasion of Oyo and Bini Empires in 1895 and 1897 respectively.

The violent entry of Islam is also described in manner not too dissimilar to the Christianity’s, which it narrates with the common history of the ancient Yoruba’s encounter of the Northern jihadist at Ilorin corridor.

                However, the more striking points made by this book are: 1) the role of early Church in many of the inter-communal crises that have endured to date; 2) The role of Ogboni Cult in the successful growth of the early Church; 3) How Christianity growth benefitted from the global crises in the last quarter of 20^th century and why Alimosho bore the burden of that massive growth.

BOOK IMAGE:

Volume 3: The ‘Progressives’ Identity of Alimosho Politics in Evolution Process from the Ancient Time

This book is about the political history of Alimosho. Therein, the significant events that had direct bearings to shaping the politics and governance policies of Lagos State and Nigeria as a whole are documented in graphic analysis of the issues involved.

The narrative leads empirical evidence of democracy as a political system that is naturally native to Yoruba nation since the pre-colonial era of Alafin Sango of Oyo Empire. The structure around which this system is built is then traced to Ijegun Kingdom as the formal attempt of Oba Esidena to introduce it with his establishment of Iledi Awo (the Ogboni Cult temples) in Alimosho.

The origin of Alimosho’s Progressives’ Identity is thence captured in the transition of power from the local authority of communal kingship, through the British colonial authority, to the era of Action Group to date.

Talking about how events in Alimosho have influenced national policies, the book captures the nexus of the origin of Land Use Act Proclaimed by the military Government of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo to the celebrated murder case of Ejigbadero.

Evaluating how Alimosho has fared In the contemporary democratic dispensation, particularly the two decades of this Fourth Republic, the book explains in full detail the origin of Alimosho’s appellation as ‘Tinubu Country’.

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Volume 4: When the Pacesetters Lit the Path: Journey of the Alimosho’s Economy from Industrial Base to Trading

This book is about matters of the economy and manpower development in Alimosho. It holds the narratives of the history of Alimosho’s economy, which it explains to begin as the thriving hob of productive indigenous industries.

It is more or less a compendium of the biography of early settlers to be received by Alimosho communities’ natives from mid periods of the 20^th century. Those who brazed all odds to migrate from the comfort of urban setting to settle in the rural life of the ancient communities and it is structurally packaged as the crème of available role models for the generational youths of Alimosho to draw their inspiration for life.