Ogun exposes fraudulent court judgment in land dispute

The Ogun State Ministry of Justice has warned members of the public against the activities of land grabbers on government-acquired lands in the Odogbolu Local Government Area of the state.

The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwasina Ogungbade SAN, in a statement on Thursday, stated that the Ministry of Justice had uncovered a “fraudulent and improperly-obtained Customary Court judgement”, with which the alleged land grabbers intend to use in deceiving members of the public.

Ogungbade said that the ministry had few months ago received a petition from persons representing lineages and descendants of one Oba Alli Ogunnaike Fibiwoga (“Fibiwoga Family”).

He explained that the family claimed that they were properly adjudged owners of a family land within Odogbolu Local Government Area of Ogun State, but were being disturbed from possessing the land by violent trespassers. They also presented a survey plan showing their 350-acre land.

Ogungbade said, “Further investigation of the complaints and scrutiny of the documents provided by these complainants showed that the land in question actually is government land.

“Also, two large Ogun State University properties are located on separate parts of the land, while other allottees of the State Government are on other parts.

“The entirety of the land claimed by Fibiwoga Family falls within government acquisition and encroaches on government-occupied land.”

The commissioner explained that the judgment obtained at the Customary Court was both fraudulently and improperly obtained, because the complainants who approached that court as plaintiffs knew that the land did not belong to them but proceeded nonetheless to obtain the same, while excluding the State Government, which had an obvious interest in the land.

It added that none of the named defendants was served with notice of the suit, while trial and judgment curiously occurred on the same day, again without notice to the named defendants.

Ogungbade explained further, “The judgment that Fibiwoga Family obtained never described the land awarded to Fibiwoga Family and the plaintiffs in that case did not plead a survey plan before the Customary Court. In the reliefs it granted, the Customary Court never referred to the survey plan

“Fibiwoga Family did not even mention the size of their land in all documents filed in court. It was only after the judgment had been delivered that Fibiwoga Family tied its current survey plan to the judgment of the customary court. That survey plan was never the basis of the orders granted by the Customary Court, and cannot be the basis of any execution today.”

He revealed that the Fibiwoga family is currently acting through a self-styled developer Obatob Properties Limited, now advertising this allegedly fraudulently occupied land as available to the public for use as a residential estate.

Ogungbade stressed, “For the reasons stated above, the Ministry of Justice is taking steps to set aside the judgment that Fibiwoga Family (and Obatob Properties Limited) is fraudulently laying claim to.”

It pointed out, “Even without the judgment being set aside, members of the public should be discerning enough to examine the judgment and ask these strange vendors where in the judgment the land was described as the one being sold or presented for sale today.

“Thus, the public is hereby put on notice that the claims of the Fibiwoga Family to 350 acres of land along Lagos Road, Apere Oba via Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State are fictitious, fraudulent, and baseless.

“In the same vein, Obatob Properties Limited has no land to develop, assign, allot, or administer in the described area.

“Any person who deals with either entity or any other private person regarding the land does so at their own peril, and at the risk of a firm government response.”