Alaafin Threatens To Sue Oyo CAN —Contentious Land Is Ancestral Property Of ‘Oba Aye’ And Not ‘Oba Orun’

By Admin

 July 21, 2020

The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, has threatened to sue the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Oyo zone over the allegation that he is exercising ownership over their land.

AIBNETWORK.BLOGSPOT.COM had earlier reported that the Zonal CAN alleged that the Alaafin sold 96 plots of land which belongs to the church in the state.

However, in his reaction, Alaafin described the allegations as disheartening and stated that it is not only absurd but paradoxical for a group who supposedly parade themselves as godly people to be involved in fraudulent claims over land.

The first class monarch maintained that the land hitherto named Ayetoro Scheme in the claim by CAN is erroneously referred to as the entire area is known as ‘Gbofin’ which is one of the ancestral stool lands of the Alaafin with approximately 1,118 plots as against the 96 plots claimed to have been owned by CAN and Alaafin has been exercising ownership, noting that “in so doing, some parts of the land were allocated to members of the royal family without any consideration and have been inhabited by them or their allottees for a reasonably long period of time with over 2000 buildings without disturbance from any quarters including Atiba Local Government.

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“It is also on records that it was through the instrumentality of the Alaafin that such reputable and highly revered religious bodies like Baptist, Anglican, Methodist, Catholic and of late, Pentecostal churches were provided with auspicious land settlements in Oyo. This magnanimity goes to the extent of the Alaafin providing space for Sunday Church services in his palace. However, it is surprising that not done with this misleading and malicious publication, some people, defying ever protocol put in place by the government to check the spread the COVID-19 pandemic took to major streets of Oyo, protesting over same matter displaying inscriptions like ‘Oyo C.A.N says no to land grabbers’, ‘Heavenly spirit, come down to fight for us’, ‘C.A.N Oyo zone says no to Royal Exploitation; Kabiyesi Alaafin Oyo, release our land’ etc,” he said.

Alaafin explained that to allege that he is trespassing or attempting to grab the said land is not only absurd but alien, asking that, “Se Onile ma’un di alejo ni ile re ni? Can the owner of the land be a trespasser or grabber of his own property? It looks not only absurd but paradoxical for a group who supposedly parade themselves as godly people to be involved in fraudulent claims over land that was not only illegally transferred to them by Atiba Local Government as claimed but also fraught with inconsistencies as against the Alaafin who had surveyed and registered the same land since 1996.

“It is equally interesting that the so-called self-styled owners to the land have no certificate of occupancy or any law of survey on the land, not even a building, a place of worship or any structure on the space since their claimed acquisition many years ago, perhaps because they know within themselves that they do not have legitimacy over the land, this was evident in their sworn affidavit claiming loss of the documents pertaining to the land. Instead of this organization to busy itself with its primary job of soul winning and evangelism, it has rather busied itself with campaign of calumny and maligning of the person and office of the Alaafin of Oyo over materialistic properties which of course is the ancestral property of ‘Oba Aye’ and not ‘Oba Orun’,” he added.