Chairman, CEO of Bob Izua Conglomerate, Chief John Osamede Adun(aka Bob Izua) has denied all the allegations made recently by some Indigenes of Evbovbioba Community in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State that he has forcefully acquired their land and resorted to molesting them when he was asked to return the parcel of land.
Speaking in a chat Chief Adun, who is the holder of the traditional title of Ayobahan of Benin Kingdom, said: “I respect my traditional title which I was given meritoriously by the Oba of Benin and as such I cannot resort to acquiring people’s land forcefully in any community. I bought the land in question from Judge Omofomwan and he supplied me the necessary documents to back up my ownership claim.
“I did the survey of the land in 1977. The survey plan and other documents are in my possession. When the deal was to be sealed Dr. Omofomwan took me to the Odionwere of Evbovbioba Community at that period of time(Odusaye). When we got to the Odionwere he reconfirmed Omofomwan’s owmership claim of the land.
“It was only years later that the present Enogie came to challenge my ownership claim. I informed him that’s father actually sold the land to Omofomwan from whom I bought it. I and Omofomwan later met him to re-attest my claims.
“I recall that in 1988 when there was a disagreement on the parcel of land my car was damaged by some people who attacked me. Thereafter, we had a settlement on the issue. The document relating to the terms of settlement are also in my possession.
“Over the years I have been doing farming on the land. I have some farmhands who are in charge of that and who reside in the structure I constructed there. I have planted a food crop there which stands till date. Omofomwan also planted a coconut tree which is still there. I used to do cattle raring on the land but some cattle rustlers decided to attack the settlement, gag my herdsmen and take away over 30 cow in the place. I reported the matter to the police and leave it at that as I didn’t seem it necessary to resort to fighting anybody about it.”
Going further, Chief Adun said: “I was informed some six months ago that some people were encroaching on the land. This is a land that I was not enthusiastic of buying initially if not for the encouragement I got from some of my people. To my surprise, recently some jobless youths emerged from no where and started pestering me to slice a portion of the land and give it to them which I vehemently refused to do.
“I recall that back in those days I even bought a car for the Enogie when he complained that he has no mobility for his movements around town. It is surprising that it is son who is now championing the demonstration against me. All their allegations that I am molesting them are false. There is nothing of such.”
Reacting to claims by some of the elders of the community that they don’t know him, Chief Adun said: “I don’t want to know them. I met with members of their land committee to whom I presented my documents. They were all surprised that the documents were in order. They now said that I should let them have the documents which I refused telling them to go search their archives for their own copies.”
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