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
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