4 policemen, 3 forest guards arrested over illegal demolition

By Evelyn Usman

Operatives of the X-Squad, Force Criminal Investigation Department, FCIDAnnex, Alagbon, Lagos, have arrested four policemen and three armed forest guards for allegedly participating in an illegal demolition and land-grabbing operation at Orile Egun, Ijere, in the Pakuro area of Obafemi Owode Local Government, Ogun State.

Also arrested was a site engineer, who claimed to have been contracted by a church.A restraining order granted by the Ogun State High Court, presided over by Justice M. Dipeolu, in July 2025, had stopped any demolition or alteration of structures on the disputed 76.15-acre land.

The court’s interim injunction also barred certain persons from taking possession, selling, or developing any part of the land, which was delineated in Survey Plan No. OG/126/2009/02, dated June 15, 2009.

Despite the directive of the court, the demolition was allegedly carried out under heavy armed supervision, an act now being probed by the FCID’s X-Squad, which has vowed to get to the root of the matter.Preliminary investigations, according to police sources, revealed that the policemen were illegally mobilised to the area to provide protection for the operation. One of them reportedly claimed he was on a “special visit” from Kaduna State.A pistol and locally made firearms were reportedly recovered from the suspects, while efforts, according to detectives, are ongoing to apprehend other fleeing members of the gang.

Investigations, it was further gathered, have also been extended to uncover the alleged involvement of some officials of the Ogun State Task Force on Land Grabbing, who were accused of aiding the illegal demolition despite a valid court order restraining any such action.

Police sources at the FCID, who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed that the arrest followed a petition submitted to the department.

“The policemen and the armed forest guards were arrested after a petition reached our office.”
, alleging that they supervised an attack on the village and demolition of uncompleted structures in defiance of a subsisting court order,” the source said.

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