Iraye Community Alleged Nigerian Army Of Land Encroachment

By Idris Olukoya

Landlords and residents of Iraye, in Eredo Local Council Development Area of Lagos State, have lamented the continued presence of soldiers in the community.

Our reporter gathered that soldiers stormed the community sometime in September 2022 and started notifying residents of their intention to demolish property in the Lenuwa, Ayeni and Adeyoruwa areas.

The soldiers were said to have arrested no fewer than 10 persons, who were reportedly subjected to different forms of torture.

Chief Segun Anwoju, Baale of iraye, while addressing the newsmen said that he visited some of the marked houses up for demolition on Sunday.

He added that the Nigerian Army did not have any land in the area.

He said that, “Historically, Iraye-Oke is one of the communities that make up Epe but we are under Eredo LCDA.

According to him,  Soldiers came into Epe in 1970 and built their barracks there. In 1975, the soldiers left Epe and part of their barracks is now the LASU campus.

“But about some years ago, the soldiers returned to Epe, left their barracks and started encroaching on Iraye community land. 

"They have been harassing and beating our people. As I speak with you, the soldiers are in Iraye community, fighting our people over our land.

“We never had any agreement with them; we are sad and we want the government and Nigerians to help us out, " he said.

He added that, the Nigerian Army do not have land in our community; they never bought any portion of land from us and never asked us about land but just came suddenly and started doing what is not right on our land.

Anwoju said that there was a need for government to restore normalcy in the community.

Mr Gbenga Ibrahim, an indigene, who were among the residents that the soldiers arrested, tortured and molested in various ways.

In September 2022, Ibrahim said that, he and a few family members were working on a plot of land in the neighborhood when suddenly soldiers stormed the scene and began inquiring as to what we were doing on their property. 

Surprisingly, they started beating us and forcing us to perform frog jumps while rolling around on the ground. We were made to roll around on the ground for hours while they took all of our cell phones. 

We were later taken to their barracks, where we were made to perform push-ups on hot granite after being tied to a truck driven by a contractor.

When one of our uncles arrived to secure our release, they later gave us cutlasses to start cutting the grasses which we cut over one acre of land before we were been release.

"All these abnormalities need to stop before the community took their revenge on their rightful properties, " he said.