An Ibadan-based businessman, Kehinde Rasak, on Wednesday, appeared before an Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan for allegedly forcefully taken possession of plots of land belonging to Bel-Air Estate.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Rasak was arraigned on a two-count charge of conspiracy and land grabbing to which he pleaded not guilty. NAN reports that anyone found guilty of the offence of land grabbing risks 16 years jail term or N500,000 fine or both.
The prosecuting counsel, Mr Michael Lana, told the court that the defendant and others still at large, conspired to violently grab the plots of land belonging to Bel-Air Estate at Odo-Ona Elewe in Ibadan.
“The defendant went to the land with thugs and forcefully took possession of the land and started building on it,” Lana said.
He said that the incident happened on May 6, 2019. According to him, the offences contravened Section 7 (1) of the Oyo State Real Property Protection Law, 2016. The prosecuting counsel urged the court not to admit the defendant to bail, due to threat to the lives of the complainant and the witnesses.
“The defendant was bent on using thugs to harass the complainant and the witnesses,” Lana said.
The defendant’s counsel, Mr Bukola Omotosho, however, urged the court to admit his client to bail pending the determination of the matter.
Omotosho said that the land was rightfully allocated to his client by the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
Ruling on the bail application, Justice Mashud Abass, said the essence of bail in any criminal matter was to secure the attendance of the defendant in court.
Abass said that the defendant (businessman) had never been in police custody before coming to appear voluntarily in court and that the charges against him were not capital in nature.
He, therefore, granted the defendant bail in the sum of N1 million, with one surety in like sum.
The judge said that the surety must be blood relation of the defendant and must have landed property within Ibadan metropolis. The matter was, thereafter, adjourned till Feb. 3 for hearing.
