The people of Adedigba community in Ado-Odo Otta local government, Ogun State, have cried to the state government to save them and their properties from armed thugs and land grabbers. They alleged that the land grabbers are threatening to take over their land and the entire community.
The community spoke through one of it indigenes, Pastor Amos Adeoye of the family of Adeoye in Abeokuta on Thursday, October 31, 2019 while lamenting that the menace of the criminals was becoming too worrisome as indigene could no longer sleep with their two eyes firmly closed. Speaking with Journalists after a recent attack on the village, the clergyman alleged that the armed thugs were hired by the members of one Idajegemo family from another village. He recalled that in 2015, his 75-year-old father, Pa Tiamuyu Adeoye, who was a farmer, was found missing after leaving home to work on his farm, claiming that his disappearance could not be unconnected to the diabolic activity of the thugs.
The pastor hinted that the thugs destroyed economic trees, cash crops, cassava plants, tomatoes and other crops planted by the aged farmer. Narrating their ordeal, Pastor Adeoye, who is the oldest son of the missing elder stressed “On Monday 14th of September, 2015, my father went to work on his farm within the Adedigba village and to our surprise he did not return home. When we went to look for him the second day we could not found him except his cutlass and a pair of shoes he wore to the farm the day he got missing.”
He added “Immediately, we reported the case at Agbara Police Station. The police followed us to the farm to confirmed our report and they assured us that they would investigate the unfortunate disappearance of our father. Till date, he has not been found.”
But the Pastor wondered while the suspected thugs were released 24 hours after their arrest, concluding that their release came as a result of intervention by the menacing Idajegemo family. Supporting his claim that the thugs were being sponsored by the Idajegemo family, he explained that one Dauda Aforilakun who happened to be a family member of Idajegemo, when he was arrested , confessed that he was the one who brought agent and caterpillar about four years ago to destroy Adeoye’s family farms and properties.
Pastor Adeoye further explained that the Idajegemo family had since continued to threaten them severely through dare devil criminals land grabbers, threatening that more members of the family and the village members would be killed and their properties would further be destroyed if they fail to release landed properties to them.
He then called on government to help them unravel the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of their father which is over four years now and to checkmate the armed thugs and prevent their village from further attacks. Attempts by OpenLife to speak with the Idajegemo family have been unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report