We are Real Owners of Vast Expanse Of Land In Lagos, Not Ojomu Family- Descendants Of Late Madam Efunroye Tinubu Tell Governor Sanwo-Olu ; Give Court Rulings, Historical Facts To Back Up Claim

By our reporter

The descendants of the late Madam Efunroye Tinubu have called on the State Governor, Babajide  Sanwo-Olu to revoked  all the large expanse of land  belonging to Madam Tinubu currently being claimed by the Ojomu Chieftaincy  Family of Lagos.

The descendants of Madam Tinubu  added that Ojomu family are also claiming to own the same land, which they Ojomu (family)allegedly claimed was granted by the state governor’s consent and was gazette by Lagos State Government. 

Madam Tinubu family said that with the illegal acquisition of the land by Ojomu family, it has exposed the massive illegal tampering of registered title that preceded his administration thereby showing disdain to the court order for compliance and jeopardising the legal land documents of severally issued land documents upon which the judgment was based and denying the  them (Tinubu family) access to their property in Lagos State without due compensation to the family

The descendants of Madam Tinubu proved that they are the real owners of the vast large of land with court judgments and historical facts to back up their claim.

A certified true copy of suit no. 124/1912 Fafunmi vs Osun Apena of judgment and title document registered as 45/45/ 2212 obtained by networktimes.com.ng,  reveals evidence of Madam Iyalode Efunroye Tinubu’s land acquisitions since 1834 when she bought a large expanse of land in Lagos mainland, some of which she used as her farm and warehouse.

According to Madam Tinubu’s descendants, the said land was surveyed by Late Surveyor Herbert Macaulay and tendered as Exhibit A in Suit 124/1912 between Fafunmi vs Osun Apena & ORDS and judgment was delivered on the 25th of October, 1912 by Justice Willoughby Osborne. 

“On the 29th of April, 2002, Trustees appointed vide an ENROLMENT OF ORDER was granted by a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja in suit no ID/920M/2000 and there was no challenge from any quarter until the attention of the trustees of Madam Tinubu were drawn to the publication of both The Nations and Punh Newspapers of Monday, the 18th day of September, 2017 at page 37 and 19th September, 2017 at page 18 respectively that the OJOMU CHIEFTAINCY FAMILY now laying a claim to the entire land of Madam Tinubu by grants of Governor’s consents and same was gazette by Lagos State Government,” the descents of Madam Tinubu said.

“Thus, all the villages listed by Ojomu Chieftaincy Family to sort for the grant and or consent of the Lagos State Governor falls within the land belonging to Madam Iyalode Efunroye Tinubu and there are no requisite proof of ownership by the Ojomu Chieftaincy Family who have turned themselves to be untouchable and emperor within Lagos State at the Land Registry, Alausa, Lagos State.

The legal representative to Madam Tinubu’s trustees has written the Lagos State Government to intervene into the matter to revoke any grants and or consent given to Ojomu Chieftaincy Family as same is illegal null and void ab initio. The Ojomu Chieftaincy Family have trampled upon the legal rights of the trustees of Madam Tinubu, a land rightly entrusted to them and affirmed by the decision of the Apex Court judgment of 1912,” they added.

According to them, historical accounts show that in 1834 Madam Tinubu purchased a large expanse of land from the Oloto family. According to history, Oloto Pawu, who died in 1627, was the first and original settler on a piece of land which included Ewe Agbigbo and Iwaya farmlands around 1592.

“It was the 6th Oloto, Baalo Oriagbaya, who reigned between1816 to 1859, who ceded to Madam Tinubu with the aid of Prince Akintoye, Ewe Agbigbo and Iwaya farmland, on behalf of the Oloto Chieftaincy family under Native Law and Customs. 

Tinubu paid 200 bags of cowries, 200 pieces of kola nuts, ten slaves and a ram to the Oloto family. The land from Oto, all the way to present day, Maryland once belonged to the Oloto Chieftaincy Family and these were granted to Madam Tinubu”

In the document made available to networktimes.con.ng, descendants of Madam tinubu, said the land so ceded measured about four and half miles radius from Abule Tinubu. In modern landmarks, the land extended from Otto/Iddo to include the areas of Ikorodu road, Ilupeju, Iwaya, Yaba, Maryland, Magodo, Ojodu Berger. It also includes Gbagada, Apapa, Ijesha, Ketu, Isolo (originally Aso-Olo), etc.

“The Lagos State Government who holds the land in trust for the people have not published in any gazette the compulsory acquisition of the said land for public overriding purposes nor has any compensation being paid to the Family of Late Madam Efunroye Tinubu nor its attorney, Adamakin and Works Investment Limited and none of the aforementioned or any other family, persons known or unknown in Lagos and its environs has ever challenged the title of the Late Madam Efunroye Tinubu on all the large land expanse of land which cut across the vast Ewe Agbigbo and 4½ miles across the island of Lagos and all adjoining lands, which were further purchased from Baloo Origbaja in 1834 for valuable consideration.

Mention should include illegal caution placed on the title so registered in 2006 which made it the oldest title in Nigeria after all the penalty fees were collected as internal revenue of Lagos State of which the title so registered has been used to secure many high court judgment in several areas in Lagos state especially in surulere akobi crescent areas and it’s environs coupled with the complete revalidation of the judgment of 124 of 1912 on July 15 2022 at justice A.M lawal’s Court on a motion ex parte with the updated survey which was tendered as exhibit A in the suit no 124 of 1912 by late surveyor Herbert Macaulay and was equally upgraded by surveyor Adeyemi which extended to all the local government of Lagos State and ogun state according to the surveyor’s report tendered to the court.

The reason for the caution illegally placed on the title by Sanwo-Olu administration has exposed the massive illegal tampering of registered title that preceded his administration thereby showing disdain to the court order for compliance and jeopardising the legal land documents of severally issued land documents upon which the judgment was based and denying the tinubu family access to their property in Lagos State without due compensation to the family,’’ the family said.

 According to the provision in the 1978 land use act that clearly stated in the act of which the same judgment was mentioned in 1978 daily Times publications of oct 21 page 26 as a reminder to the state government of the supreme Court judgment of suit no 124 of 1912 where all the deeds issued over the coverage areas of the survey tendered by Herbert Macaulay were null and void which was equally repeated in the late senior advocate Rotimi Williams of the same daily Times of November 1990 where all the deeds issued by the Lagos State Government goes to nowhere as long the judgment remain,” the family added.

 “But rather than compensate the family of the judgment creditor, Lagos State Government under Sanwo-Olu has disregarded the court order of the revalidation by grabbing the family land unlawfully from Eti-Osa, Lekki to Yamaha land in Abule Egba and placed a caution on the registered title without the court order thereby endanger the rule of law in our democracy which was complied with under the military government of Raji Rasaki in 1985 that involve Ojukwu vs Lagos State of which the military junta under president Babangida complied with the court order by returning the land abs his property at Ikoyi belonging to the late Ikemba Ojukwu,” the descendants of Madam Tinubu said.