A lawyer, Mr. Akinjide Isola, has petitioned the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) to stop alleged trespassers from encroaching on land owned by the late founder of First Foundation Hospital, Dr Olutosin Ajayi.
Ajayi died on April 27, 2020, after a brief illness. He was the husband of former beauty queen, Helen Prest Ajayi, and the doctor who tried to save the late renowned journalist, Dele Giwa, after he was parcel-bombed in 1986.
Isola, who is Ajayi’s lawyer, said the trespassers destroyed structures on the land on Afolabi Awosanya Street, Opebi, Ikeja, with the intention of grabbing the land.
He said armed hoodlums invaded the property less than a month after Ajayi died.
“We reported to the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of the Zone 2 Police Command at Onikan, Lagos. The police instructed them to stay away from the property pending when investigations would be concluded.
“Despite the police instructions, the land grabbers mobilised themselves and went back to the land, vandalised structures, materials, and started working day and night,” Isola said.”
The lawyer urged LASBCA to investigate the invasion.
He added: “The late Ajayi has been the legal owner of the land since 1975, which was duly registered with the Lagos Land Registry as No. 12, at page 12 in Volume 1705 of the Register of Deeds.
“The land grabbers claimed to have obtained a court judgment since 1977. They are now enforcing the judgment with armed hoodlums and thugs, whom they brought into the land to injure, maim, and chased away the workers. They vandalised the land, demolished the fence and materials on site after the death of Ajayi.”
Sources disclosed that the matter is being investigated by the police and the Lagos State Government.