Some stakeholders of Orile-owu Community in Osun on Tuesday, raised the alarm over alleged illicit sale of and alienation of communal land in the Ago Owu Farm Settlement and all neighbouring villages along Osun State boundary lines with Ogun.
The stakeholders in a press conference held in Osogbo accused the monarch of the town, Alhaji Dauda Akinfalabi, of being the brain behind the act, which they described as inhuman.
But in his swift reaction, Alhaji Akinfalabi debunked the allegation, describing it as untrue.
The monarch explained that, the land in question was the one given to investors who want to invest in the community to enhance its development.
However, the stakeholders at the press conference addressed by Dr. Bola Oyemomi told newsmen that,” the sale of communal/Royal land parcels has led to the displacement of farmers with all its attendant implications for food security, social dislocations, and denial of means of livelihood by settlers.
According to him,” most critical effect of these criminal sale of land is the potential creation of boundary disputes between Ogun and Osun States in the near future.All these also are in direct contravention of the Land Use Act of 1978 which vets the ownership of land in any State on the Governor of a State.”
“We are in possession of documents on some of these illegal transactions, especially on one worth N350million, amongst many running into not less than a billion Naira.”
” No Oba or Baale before him, since the resettlement of the Owus in 1904 after the fratricidal Owu War, was involved in sale of communal land for personal gains like him and his cohorts and Illegal mining activities are being carried out clandestinely and surreptitiously in most of the land parcels sold,” he claimed.
“A lot of money being proceeds from the criminal sale of land has been deployed to building palatial hotels and residential buildings, Desecration and bastardisation of our age-long culture and traditions.
“The security agencies are therefore invited to investigate at every level of the Kingdom to verify these claims and take appropriate actions against the Akinfalabi’s and their cohorts”, they stressed.
The community people who further claimed that, the monarch illegally occupied the throne of the town, called on the state governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke to intervene on the matter and right all rights saying, the rightful owner of the throne is Prince Adenrele who was chosen by the Kingmakers of the town and whose name was submitted to the Government.
“Since Alhaji Dauda Akinfalabi was installed by his cohorts, there has been no peace in the Kingdom.The situation would have gotten worse, if not for the series of interventions by the leadership of respected community leaders, whom he later turned against and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, under the aegis of the Royal Union of Owu People (RUOP). “
“In spite of these well-intentioned interventions, he ( the kung) and his cohorts have not toed the path of peace and civility,” he concluded.
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