About 50 gun-totting regular and mobile policemen on Tuesday commenced the take over of Magodo Estate by locking up buildings within the estate.
The exercise is the latest in their bid to recover the estate land for Shangisha Landlords Association which was favoured by the Supreme Court as the original owners of the land on which the estate is sited.
The policemen, drafted by the Inspector General of Police have taken permanent residence in the estate, since about 100 of them were deployed on December 21, 2021, for the recovery of the land.
Landlords and residents of the estate, who got wind of the new move on Monday, quickly mobilised Tuesday morning to stage a peaceful protest, starting from 6 am.
During the protest, both access gates to the estate, were firmly locked.
The gates were eventually opened around 11 am.
Events took a dramatic turn, when news filtered that buildings were being taken over by policemen around the popular Emmanuel Keshi Street, forcing zonal chairmen in the estate, to order closure of access gates to the zones.
At Foreshore zone, residents were denied inward and outbound movements, for a while, until the chairman (name withheld) signalled the admin head, to partially open the access gate, for marooned residents.
Other zones like Kola Amodu and Nelson Nweke also experienced a lockdown.
Pedestrians without verifiable identity, were denied entry into the zones.
Agitated residents are spoiling for a showdown, because the assurance of peaceful resolution by visiting Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu, is claiming fraying nerves.
The Supreme Court awarded 549 plots to the claimants, covering thousands of buildings.
Details later…
