President Muhammadu Buhari has set up a committee to resolve the ownership tussle over the Obalende Muslim praying ground in Lagos.
The ownership tussle is between the Lagos Muslim community and security agencies.
The committee is made up of the Chief of Staff to the president, Prof. Ibrahim Gamari as chairman while Ministers of Defence, Works and Housing, the Chief of Army Staff, the Director-General, Department of State Services and others recognised as stakeholders in the matter.
Buhari took the decision on Wednesday, March 22 when he met with the leadership of the Lagos State Jama’atul Muslimeen (Muslim Community) at Aso Rock, Abuja.
A statement issued after the meeting by Garba Sheu, Senior Special Assistant to the president on media and publicity, said Buhari assured that the ownership dispute will be resolved in two weeks.
He said the committee was specifically set up to advise Buhari on the processes and all that needs to be done to do justice to all parties involved.
Garba said Buhari made it clear that justice and fairness are principles very dear to him and he will hold onto them as long as he lives.
“I have listened to the enlightening historical details you have read.
“You will get justice as far as this is concerned. I commend you for adopting a peaceful approach to seeking justice, without heating up the polity.
“The Chief of Staff will get back to you in two weeks,” the president was quoted as telling the Lagos Muslim Community.
The leadership of the Lagos Muslim Community had in their presentation, said they came to the President as a last resort.
They said all several avenues explored to get justice failed.
In their account as rendered by the leader of the delegation Alhaji Sikiru Alabi-Macfoy, Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the organisation, the Lagos State Muslim Community informed the President that their ownership of the land dated back to 1931 when the Nigerian Government made an “Absolute Grant” of 3.11 acres of the land in question to serve as Muslim Prayer Ground at the new Hausa Settlement, Ikoyi Plains, Lagos, now known as Obalende.
This, they explained, was much earlier than the arrival in the area of their neighbours, the Dodan Barracks, that came after the collapse of the First Republic.
The Lagos Muslim Community further presented documents to show approval of the ownership of the land, signed by the late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, under Obasanjo’s Military Administration, affirming their ownership of the land.
“In the last few years, officials of the Department of State Services (DSS), at Dodan Barracks have been threatening to deny the Muslims access into the prayer ground because the Muslim Community was claiming ownership of it, apparently based on their erroneous understanding that the Prayer Ground belongs to Dodan Barracks,”Alabi-Mcfoy said. (vitalnewsngr.com)
