A traditional ruler in Olohunda Olajide, a town on the fringe of the 'Gateway State', away from its capital, Abeokuta has banished a non-indigene from his town, confiscated his property and imposed a N1,000,000 penalty on him, if he wants to return to his house in the town.
A tussle which began over a disputed piece of land is now threatening to burgeon into a diplomatic row as Oba Theophilus Olatunbosun, the Olu Of Olohunda in the Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State has unilaterally taken the decision to banish Samuel Agosun, an Egun man from the Republic of Benin from his domain with the warning that he should never return except if he pays a fine of one million naira (N1,000,000) to the monarch.
The banished Samuel Agosun, who has a house in Olohunda, even before Oba Olatunbosun's ascension to the throne and has been living in the town since 30 years ago, now lives about as an outlaw as he cannot go back home to see his wife and children who are still resident in the town.
The travails of Samuel Agosun began some few months ago when he decided to build a structure on a piece of land he had bought over two years ago at Olohunda Railway Station from the Baale of the area, Chief Kayode Oyekan.
Speaking to the press in Abeokuta where he pleaded for immediate intervention of the Nigerian authority on his matter, Agosun said Oba Olatunbosun was passing when he saw masons on the land and stopped to ask for who ordered the work. He said that when the Oba was told that he (Agosun) was the one, he ordered that the work be stopped immediately, saying contemptuously that an Egun man cannot build on a prime land.
"He then sent for me and at his palace he ordered me to present the receipt of purchase but I declined insisting he should call the Chief who sold the land to me. But to my surprise, he sent the police after me. They came after me, seized my motorcycle and locked me up over the weekend", Agosun narrated.
"On the Monday, I was summarily taken to Magistrate Court 1 at Ifo for trial for trespassing on a community land as he had quickly put a signage on the land that it was meant for a police station. After a protracted case, the magistrate discharged and acquitted me, saying Oba Olatunbosun should first straighten things up with Chief Oyekan who sold the land to me", Agosun further narrated.
But, according to Agosun, Oba Olatunbosun refused to accept the court judgement as he has now destroyed the foundation erected on the piece of land and also banished him from the town for daring to be confrontational with the king.
"As the police had washed their hands off the matter, seeing Oba Olatunbosun had lost in court, the Oba now resorted to the Amotekun Corps who now hounds me about", Agosun lamented.
Agosun said he had sent several people to intercede for him before Oba Olatunbosun but all to no avail as the Oba insisted on forfeiture of the land and payment of the N1,000,000 fine.
When contacted over the phone for his reactions, Oba Olatunbosun said the land in question belonged to the community and should not have been sold to Agosun.
He curtly dismissed further questioning by the journalists as he claimed that the matter is now in the High Court.
Meanwhile, Agosun who dismissed the excuse of Oba Olatunbosun that the matter was already in the High Court as a lie and a ruse for the monarch to go unreprimanded has sent high powered letters to the Inspector General of Police, the Ogun State Commissioner of Local Government and Chieftancy Affairs as well as the Speaker of the State House of Assembly for their immediate intervention.
Meanwhile, the President of the Union Of Beninese Resident In Nigeria, Ogun State chapter, Engr. Romaine Kakapo was said to have also forwarded the report of the incident to their ambassador here in Nigeria.
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