The traditional rulers and religious leaders in the Agege community of Lagos State have sought the intervention of the state Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, AIG Zone 2 Command, the State Commissioner of Police, Olanrewaju Ishola, Christian Association of Nigeria and the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in the alleged blackmail and land grabbing activities of a former deputy Speaker of Ogun State House of Assembly, Edwards Ayo-Odugbesan and his wife, Mrs Funmi Ayo-Odugbesan in the community.

In separate petitions jointly signed by Olu of Agege, Oba Kamila Isiba, Ologba of Ogba, Oba Lateef Egbeyemi, the first Executive Chairman of Agege LGA, Chief Owolabi Dada, former Agege LGA chairman, Elder Rotimi Adeshina, Chief Imam of Agege Central Mosque, President, Christian Association of Nigeria, Agege Branch, Afeni Teddy Ola and former CDA Chairman, Theophius Afolabi, the leaders called on Sanwo-Olu and the police to investigate the couple’s claim to the council’s land and ensure justice is served.

Debunking this claim, in a petition dated December 3, 2024, the leaders claimed that the land in question falls within the council’s survey plan that extends beyond the now-demolished MKO Abiola Market.

The petition was released to the media on Thursday, December 19.

The petition partly read, “What is now happening is that the Ayo-Odugbesans have been using both legal and illegal means to assert their false claim to the land in dispute.

“We are aware that the couple has dragged the council to court on the matter, while we welcome that, their exertion of influence on the police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to harass the council officials, particularly Egunjobi, is annoying, and capable of escalating into full-scale trouble and its accompanying violence, and destruction of lives and properties.

“The same with the potential to disturb the peace of our community is the peddling of false intelligence about the Council’s chairman, his wife and innocent children including his scholarship.

“We most humbly request that the title document being paraded by the couple should be investigated along with our own title document in order to ascertain whose land fails within the land in dispute while those pliant security officers at their beck and call are directed to steer clear of the issue.”

Similarly, in another petition addressed to the General Overseer of the RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, titled, “Complaint against the Ayo-Odugbesans for land grabbing and blackmail of Agege Local Government officials,” the petitioners said the act by the Ayo-Odugbesans has no place in Christianity.

They called for the suspension of the couple from pastoral activities in the church to ensure that the exercise was not compromised.

It read, “Pastor Ayo-Odugbesan, Pastor, Glory Tabernacle zone, Lagos Province 8 of RCCG. The lawyer couple encroached on Agege Local Government’s land at old Ogba Road, illegally building a fee-paying private school that stopped functioning over a year ago.

“To the best of our knowledge of Christian teachings and values, fraudulence and forgery have no place in Christianity. The same goes for blackmail, slandering and threats which the couple have been using to make the council authorities surrender the land to them to no avail.

“Their uncivilised and unchristian manners are a big disservice to RCCG as they harm the reputation of the church and bring its hard-earned, good name into disrepute.”