The Pastor of the Disciples Mission of Christ Church, Primate Ojo Ajiboge, has accused the new Commander of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Olayinka Egbeyemi, of sanctioning demolition works carried out on his church.
The Primate also accused the RRS Commander of demolishing another building on Abiodun Sadiku Street, off Adealu Street, Dopemu, in the Agege area of Lagos State
Reports indicate that a police team led by a certain Inspector Odiaua Sunday and another Mr Okedele, on December 19, 2020, arrived the scene and began demolishing the building where the church was housed.
Ajiboge disclosed to newsmen that when he confronted the operative, asking for the court order backing the demolition, he was simply informed that the order came from the the RRS commander.
“The policemen stormed the area with eight carpenters and ordered them to remove the roof of the church, and before I knew what was happening, the carpenters alighted from the bus and started removing the doors and windows of the church as well as the landlady and other tenants’ apartments,” Ajiboge stated.
“As if the removal of the windows and doors was not enough, the carpenters climbed the roof of the church and removed all the iron sheets, entered into the church and ransacked everywhere and took away money kept in the church. They stole N6.5m proceeds from my farm.
“When I asked the team leader to show me the court order for the demolition, he said they had the orders of the RRS commander to demolish the church and other buildings in the compound; everyone in the church and the other building was ordered out with immediate effect without any court order.
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“To our surprise, when we got to the Dopemu Police Station, the Divisional Police Officer only asked us to write our names and leave, only for him to rebuke Okedele for carrying out an illegal order. Till date, nothing has been done and all my efforts that the case should be investigated and the culprits charged have not yielded any result,” the Primate fumed.
While reacting to the development, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, insisted that the RRS commander was not behind the church demolition.
Adejobi further stated that the Police have launched an investigation into the matter.
“It’s not possible that the RRS commander will order the demolition or be in support of the demolition; it’s not within his purview as a commander; so, it’s out of it. We have been told that the man, who went for the demolition, had papers to carry out such an operation; based on preliminary investigation, the man has the right for demolition because he has papers from the Lagos State Government.
“However, the command has instructed the DPO of that area to get involved and conduct an investigation for us to know what went wrong. If the man does not have genuine papers, then we will know what to do and the command will refer them to the necessary government agencies, which are in charge. It is not the job of the police to order the demolition of a building; the police can only give cover to those who have papers to carry out demolition. We are going to look into it and see what went wrong and handle the matter objectively,” Adejobi pointed out.
“Really? Do they serve in RRS?” he asked.
“Blatant lies. You can give me their phone numbers to assist you in your findings as I have never come across such names,” Egbeyemi said