By Owolola Adebola
In what appears as a show of sinew, a property developer, Chief Moroof Owonla, has been made a guest of the Lagos State Task Force officials at their detention centre, Oshodi, Lagos.
His arrest was effected last week Friday afternoon when he was alerted to the fact that his property was a subject of vandalization at Etegbin, a community in Ono LocaL Government Area of the State.
Prior to the invasion and waton destruction of his property, he had been involved in a running battle with the power brokers at Alausa over a sprawling property in the same community where his filling station and sundry was watonly destroyed.
According to insiders, the victim businessman was said to have detoured his journey to Alausa where he had wanted to meet with the Commissioner for Environment only for him to meet the men of Kick Against Indiscipline(KAI) from the same Ministry, destroying his source of living. He was said to have asked questions from the official vandals who apparently regarded his questions as an affront.
In the heat of argument, he was reportedly manhandled by the officials who claimed that it was an order from above.
Aside from physical assault, Chief Moroof and one of his aides were arrested and detained without a formal charge, while his multimillion naira vehicle was wantonly destroyed
Enquiries at Alausa, the Lagos seat of power indicated that there had been a flurry of petitions against the location of the now vandalised petrol station by some community members on which the Ministry of Environment relied upon to carry out the destruction.
However, Chief Moroof Owonla differs, saying that the vandalization of his property was done with malice aforethought.
According to him,”all the necessary documents needed or required by law have been obtained legally. It is a way of calling a dog a bad name in order to hang it. It is a way of silencing me so that my initial case against the government, person at Etegbin,which is pending at Abuja would be frustrated. I am a law abiding citizen afterall.”
Owonla advanced further that, mmediately after his arrest, his photographs were splashed in the social media in an apparent move to paint him black. He said that the property where his petrol station situate is on two plots of land which is not government acquisition.
“All I need is justice. At the end of darkness there must be light. Darkness cannot overshadow light. I am a child of the light,” he sounded off.
