Posted by By Moyo Fabiyi on
The running battle for the possession of a parcel of land at Igando, between a church and some indigenes of the town, took a dramatic turn recently when the monarch, Oba Lasisi Gbadamosi, alleged a threat to his life.
The running battle for the possession of a parcel of land at Igando, between a church and some indigenes of the town, took a dramatic turn recently when the monarch, Oba Lasisi Gbadamosi, alleged a threat to his life.
'Pastor Adewusi has petitioned me in Abuja, his paper was sent back to Igando, and investigated. It was found to be baseless. Again, he dragged me to SCID, Panti. I did not demolish his church. The government did. But he (pastor) has been after me. He is a threat to my life,' Oba Gbadamosi complained.
The Igando monarch alleged that the church encroached on the NYSC land and that was why government demolished the structure. 'I was even sympathetic and pleaded with the community to give the church an acre of land for development,' Oba Gbadamosi stated further.
Confronted with these allegations, Pastor Adele Adewusi Bakare, of The Saints Gospel Church of Christ, a.k.a. Alapa Ina, Igando, refuted the claim of threat to life made by Oba Gbadamosi.
According to him, 'I, nor any member of this church, is after Oba Gbadamosi's life. His wife, Olori Risikat, is our regular member till this day and has been coming to our church for more than 10 years now.'
Pastor Adewusi Bakare went into the genesis of the land tussle which he said was purchased for Beku-Onimoba family in 1976. He said the monarch was not related to the family and that the church got a receipt for 14 hectares of land purchased from them.
'Our problem started in 1983, during the Shagari regime, when the NYSC camp was sited here. Our church was demolished and part of our land fenced off, ' the pastor said, adding that the matter was a subject of litigation before Justice Kasali of an Ikeja High Court, who ruled that status quo be maintained pending the determination of the substantive suit.