A businessman, Ajibade Olajoku, has accused the Vice Chairman of the Mushin Local Government Area, Tunbosun Aruwe, and the leader of the legislative arm of the council, Olamide Williams, of attempting to deprive him of the Hassan Ola Plaza, which was recently gutted by fire.
The plaza is in the Aguiyi Ironsi International Trade Centre, Ladipo Market, Mushin.
The fire, which claimed no life, destroyed property of occupants of the plaza worth billions of naira.
Olajoku said the plaza was built on a piece of land that the state government allocated through the Mushin LGA to his late father’s company, Paramo Development Ventures Limited.
A letter by the state land services to a former Executive Chairman, Mushin LGA, confirming the allocation, was sighted by our correspondent.
Olajoku, however, said since the fire incident, Aruwe and Williams had been plotting to deprive him of his rights to the property.
He said, “My late dad, Hassan, was active during the gubernatorial ambition of Bola Tinubu in 1999. So, he compensated my dad by allocating the land to him. The land was supposed to be used for a general hospital, but the general hospital was moved to another site.
“So, my dad applied for the land and Tinubu approved it for market development to compensate him for his efforts toward his ambition. The allocation was for 99 years and subjected to renewal with the Mushin LGA every 25 years.
“We also have an agreement with the Mushin LGA. The first agreement will elapse in 2027, but in 2014, during the era of a former Chairman, Babatunde Adepitan, we did another 25-year contract extension. We have also been paying the local government stallage fees between N8m to N9m annually.
“Everything was normal until the plaza caught fire two weeks ago. The chairman and executives of the Mushin LGA visited the scene and while addressing us, he said a committee would be set up to look into the cause of the fire.”
Olajoku said instead of investigating the cause of the fire, the committee members started demanding documents and asking the kind of agreement his company had with the affected occupants.
“I said we sold and leased shops to them. They said it was wrong for us to sell to them since we were on lease with the government and we promised to make amendments and the meeting concluded.
“I quickly called a meeting with the concerned occupants and told them we would regularise their paper works to leasehold that would run concurrently with our agreement with the LGA and they agreed. We were called for a second meeting which was presided over by the Vice Chairman, Tunbosun Aruwe.
“The head of the legislative arm of the council, Olamide Williams, was also there and it was at that meeting that all the fireworks happened. We were told that we did not have any right to the plaza again and I said that was impossible as we had a valid agreement on the property. Their plan is to take over our property.
“So, we had heated argument, and they started saying my allegiance was no longer to Tinubu but to Aregbesola. I am not for Aregbesola, my allegiance is and has always been to Tinubu who compensated my late father with the property, but they are trying to use politics to override the validity of our agreement,” Olajoku said.
Contacted, Aruwe said, “The local government allocated the place to them to use it for 25 years. The agreement has not elapsed. But when the local government allocates a place to you to use for a certain period, you don’t have the right to sell the property to somebody else outrightly.
“During our investigation, the shop owners came with documents showing that they bought shops at the place outrightly. So, when we invited him, I said he made a mistake and that he had no right to sell our property outrightly to someone.
“So, when the place got burnt, we told him he did not have the right to rebuild that place again as he already sold it to the shop owners. His lawyer has written to us, so we will brief the chairman tomorrow (Monday).”
Williams declined to speak to our correspondent regarding the matter when contacted.
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