Suleiman Adesanya (a.k.a Alhaji White), a commodity trader, has described the contents of a petition published in an online medium, accusing him of using Officers of the Zone 2 Police Command to harass, intimidate and threaten one Segun Olawunmi, over a land situate at Erebe Ijebu, off Ketu-itokin Expressway, Epe Local Government Area, Lagos State as fallacious, totally untrue, a conjecture and an attempt to disparage his good name and image of the Nigerian Police, explaining that the matter is one between him and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police over the illegal possesion of firearms linked to him.
The said online publication with the caption, ‘Lawyer Petition Zone 2 Police Officer For Abuse Of Power, Threat To Life’, reads in part; “… land grabber, have been petitioned by a Lagos lawyer Barrister Gabriel Giwa-Amu over threat to life, unlawful duties against police acts and regulations and for abuse of firearms with the intention to kill his clients.”
In his reaction however, Rasaki Oladipupo, the Olori Ebi of Amos Keku family, Ita-Ogo, Erebe Ijebu, “The case started when Suleiman Adesanya approached our family through Surveyor Olaoluwa Ogundipe requesting for the purchase of 5 acres of land from our 51 acres family land with a survey plan document from the State government that was carried out in 2016, and after due consideration by the family, the 5 acres was sold to him in August 2022 which he wanted to use for farming.
“Afterwards we learnt he was finding it difficult accessing the land due to threats and resistance from from a group of miscreants, thugs and elements unknown to our family, weilding cudgels, matchetes, knives, charms and guns commanding him never to come near or think of ever using the land for any purpose.
“Adesanya later came back to the family to relate his ugly experiences trying to access the land to achieve his aim of buying the land owing to life threatening harassments by a large number of miscreants, thugs and elements unknown to our family weilding cudgels, matchetes, knives, charms and guns threatening him never to come near or think of ever using the land for any purpose.
“He asked the family for a way out and we advised him to explore every legal means to enable him access the land, leading him to report the matter to the Zone 2 Command of the Nigeria Police.” Oladipupo said.
Adding, “After making the complaint to the Police Command, some officers were detailed along with him to the land to investigate the matter and incidentally the same gang members accosted him as usual not knowing that he was accompanied by a Police team who swooped on them to effect the arrest of about seven members of the gang bearing several weapons, charms, a pump action gun and several rounds of bullets, while the others escaped.”
Names of those arrested are; David Michael 29, Wasiu Abefe 29, Kehinde Ajiboye 32, Kolawole Sola 25, Jimoh Wasiu 29, Fatai Olowolarafe 50, Alaba Adefuya 50, Babatebi Olawunmi 55 the only female among them.dd
Explaining further, Oladipupo said, “The gang members were brought to Court where they confessed after being cross examined by prosecutors that they were working for Segun Olawunmi, the petitioner and publisher of the concorted online report, also parading himself as the Kabiyesi of Omu, but was later discovered to be false, that no such title exists.
“The suspected gang members further confessed that the said Olawunmi had been using them to grab lands from unsuspecting buyers, either for resell to them or to fresh buyers and on learning that his men were arrested he fled his residence avoiding his own arrest by the police till date.”
On ground to corroborate the statements of Rasaki Oladipupo was Olaoluwa Ogundipe, Surveyor to the Amos Keku family, who said that the gang men appeared in Court on June 28, where they made several confessions indicting the suspected land-grabber Segun Olawunmi, “who have being avoiding arrest since then, knowing he has been exposed and bearing a guilty conscience, he could not come out from hiding to defend himself but resorted to cheap media publicity to arouse illusive public sympathy.
“The truth is that, Suleiman Adesanya has nothing to do with his predicament, nor do any Police Officer for that matter, because the issue has gone beyond the case of land grabbing to purely a criminal offence involving a party bearing an illegal firearm with rounds of bullets, said to be provided by him. It is therefore a case between him and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police.” Ogundipe added.
