Court Order: See Why There Is Pandemonium In Magodo (Photos)

Landlords and residents of Magodo, Shangisha Area of Lagos State were knocked into panic when men of the Nigeria Police stormed the area on Tuesday, armed with a Supreme Court judgment compelling the Lagos State Government to give back 549 plots of land to the original land owners.

According to the Supreme Court's judgment, the lands was fraudulently acquired over 38 year ago by the Lagos State Government.

The policemen were deployed within the area to move from house to house making known the possession.

Each house within the area has been marked to indicate that the court's judgment in favour of the original landlords.

A dig into history revealed that the then military government of Lagos State acquired the area for public use. The lands were later sold to government officials and their associates, which promoted the original owners (Shangisha Landlords Association) to approach the court for redress.

According to the court's ruling, both parties were ordered to vacate the land until final determination of the suit. Nonetheless the Lagos State Government continued to sell the lands in disregard of the court's order.

The final judgment however, ordered Lagos State Government to give the Association (original owners of the land) and its members 549 plot of land as a matter of first priority.

Dissatisfied with the high court judgment, Lagos state approached the Court of Appeal which affirmed the earlier judgment of the trial high court.

The matter went on to the Supreme Court, which also affirmed the judgments of both lower courts over eight years ago.

Since the apex court's judgment of February 10, 2012, the Lagos State Government had refused to do the needful in fulfilling the court's order.

The inaction of the state government was what prompted the Landlords' Association to mobilize the police to storm the area on Tuesday to maintain law and order while a court bailiff mark the properties according to the decision of the court.

The chairman of the Shangisha Landlords Association, Chief Adebayo Adeyiga disclosed that the landlords have no choice than to levy execution of the judgment, having waited for so many years for the Lagos State Government to comply with the decision.

Most landlords within the area claimed they bought their land from Lagos State Government with no prior knowledge of any litigation on the land. This is because some of the landlords were even issued a certificate of occupancy.

At the time of filing this report, normalcy is yet to be restored in the area. It was gathered that some residents have been locked in by the Landlords Association while others were prevented from entering the area.