Some officials of the Private Sector Partnership under the Lagos State Waste Management Authority have accused police officers at the Area M Command in Idimu of unlawfully arresting and detaining three of their members on Thursday in connection with a longstanding land dispute.
PUNCH Metro gathered from one of the officials, who spoke for the aggrieved members, Suleiman Jamiu, that their members were being harassed and mistreated by suspected land grabbers who allegedly forced them off a property allocated to them by the state government.
Jamiu said, “We are officials of the PSP, and the land was allocated to us by the state government. We have all the necessary documentation. We had a structure where we parked our refuse collection trucks near Powerline. Suddenly, a hotel was built on the structure, and later, land grabbers arrived and forced us out.”
“We found out they were the ones who sold the land and forced us out. Now, we have nowhere to park except outside. We’ve been pleading with them for over 20 years. Before we could obtain a court injunction, they started building a fence to divide the land.
“We filed a petition with the police when the injunction was issued, but nothing came out of it. Four days ago, they arrested two of our men, claiming we were obstructing traffic.
“They forced us to sign an undertaking to remove all the trucks within 24 hours, which we complied with, except for one truck that had an engine problem. They invited us today (Thursday) to give a statement, which we did, but then they detained our men and said they had a plan to charge them in court.”
When our correspondent reached out to the spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, on Thursday, he explained that the officers were responding to a complaint from the local council, which alleged that the operators’ activities in the area were causing obstruction and pollution.
He said, “It is not about land-grabbing. The local government area wrote to the police complaining of how the operators were obstructing traffic and leaving waste in their vehicles, thereby causing air pollution for residents around.
“The operators were approached but they remained adamant. The police had to step in.”
