Land Tussle: Former Kwara Perm Sec accusses Word Assembly founder of trespass

Court judgement affirms my ownership – clergyman

A former Permanent Secretary in the Civil Service of Kwara State, Comrade Olaitan Adefila, has accused Pastor Issac Omoleyin, founder of Word Assembly, of encroaching on his landed property located along Jimba Oja village in Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state.

Comrade Adefila, in a bid to reclaim what he said, belongs to him, invited the Town Planning Authority to the 10 hectres of land for an inspection.

Meanwhile, Omoleyin, denied all the allegations leveled against him saying he’s the owner of the land and that he has court judgement that affirms his ownership.

The retired civil servant, while speaking with journalists over the issue, bemoaned the development noting that the structures erected on the land is an act of illegality.

Comrade Adefila stressed that the judgement the clergyman obtained from the court never concerns him in any way since he was not at any point judgement creditor.

“I’m actually here to challenge this illegal structure taking place in my land. I bought this place in 2013 from Pastor Isaac Olu for my daughter and since then, she has been developing it gradually with town planning approval in 2015.

“Sometimes this year, Pastor Omolehin broke into the land claiming that he has obtained court judgement to take possession of the property. I told him I’m neither a court creditor nor debtor, so there is no way a judgement passed can affect me. If the judgement is passed this year, the original owner of this land sold it to me seven years ago and I cannot be referred to as his agent.

“But because it involved court papers as he claimed I decided to report the case to the police outpost in the village. The force advised me to approach court which I did in an attempt to maintain peace. We wrote to the court and file the writ of summon on the 21st of February because we discovered the transgression around February 15th this year.

“Since then I agreed and told the police that I can stay off here to maintain peace but I still hold the custody of this land with all documented evidences and I have built three buildings on it.

“But all of a sudden pastor Omolehin started building structure there and I went back to the police to report, they said they weren’t aware of the development. So I told them that since they are now aware, that structure must go beyond that level,” he narrated.

Comrade Adefila further noted that he acquired the land legitimately and was given relevant documents including Certificate of Ownership saying he is not a party to any court judgement.

He said “the action I have just taken is the fact that he (pastor) has erected a structure on the land and I invited the town planning to know whether those structure are known to their approval. I am also involving the police legal department to know whether he (pastor) can just seek court order to start building in another person’s land without the necessary documents.

In an interview with the clergyman in his office, he said the case was heard from the High Court to the Supreme Court level and the matter was decided in his favour.

The discrepancy over the land could be traced to one Pastor Issac Olu, who sold the land to him and also went ahead to sell same property to Comrade Adefila.

He said, Olu, gave Adefila the C/O after he had purchased the property at higher price.

He maintained that he is ready for peaceful resolution over the land whenever Comrade Adefila approaches him for such.

“Pastor Olu came to us and requested us to buy his land at Jimba, we negotiated and it was agreed for N3.5million. We requested for the document but he said it won’t be ready until later time, we gave him cheque of N2.5million with the promise to pay him balance after bringing the documents.

“For four months, he didn’t bring the documents, we wrote a letter to him, reminding him of the documents, he interpreted to be that we’re threatening him, it was never do. Pastor Olu has the document but kept it and was looking for someone who will buy it at higher price, that was how Adefila ran into the mess.

“When Adefila wanted to buy it, the Jimba people told him not to do so that Pastor Omoleyin has bought the land… He later came to meet me, I told him the church has bought the land and also warned him not to go into transaction over the land…

The clergyman, however, express readiness to settle the matter amicably if comrade Adefila so wish.