The peace of Ibadan in Oyo State was on Friday threatened by some youths over the demolition of illegal structures by state government officials.

CEOAFRICA learnt on Sunday that  but for an elderly caution, the youth at Beere and Ojaba, an Ibadan hinterland were poised for a showdown with the state government officials over the demolition of some structures belonging to Iba-Oluyole family compound.

On Friday, officials  from the Ministry of Environment and Habitat with officials of the joint security patrol outfit tagged "Operation Burst" had stormed the area with bulldozers with the intention to demolish to demolish the structures following which the youth mobilized themselves to prevent the exercise.

As a result of the melee, touts and miscreants that usually loiter around the area took the advantage to terrorize the people, especially traders who became perplexed and carted away their goods, food, money and other valuables.  

The youth were furious and were determined to violently engage the government officials in a duel following the refusal of the government officials to honour and respect two court injunctions, dated January 15 and December 20, 2013 granted by Iyabo Oyelaran of the state High Court.

Head of the Iba-Oluyole Family Compound (Mogaji) Nureni Akanbi and other prominent elders of the compound had to step out and pleaded with the youths not to engage in any act that would not only threaten the peace of the land but that would even lead to casualties.

Reacting to the incident through a telephone, counsel to the family, Niyi Ajewole described the action of the government as a disgrace to democracy and accused the government of abdicating its responsibility of protecting the people, but rather engaging in terrorizing them.

Akanbi, in his reaction expressed shock at the turn of event as he too said the government action which led to the destruction of property worth about #5 million was a violation of a court order which restrained it from tampering with the structures, asking that “where is the respect and regard for the rule of law they claim to hold dear to their heart. “The land in question belongs to Iba Oluyole family compound and it extends from Ojaba to the boundary of Ogunmakin community in

Ogun State but we were surprised that the government went on with the demolition without any quit notice not minding that there is a subsisting legal instrument against such government action,” he said.  He recalled that the government expressed readiness to acquire the land in 1971 but, “we thereafter got three government approvals to construct shopping complex, the construction of which we started  in 2004 after the death of my predecessor, Mogaji Amusa Akanbi  in 2003.

“I became the Mogaji in 2007 and we continued with our developmental projects which were completed and occupied in 2010. We even donated a piece of land to government for the construction of office and public toilet and a transformer was given to us in 2010 but it was not put into use”, the family head disclosed.