By Owolola Adebola
In what appears as a show of sinew, a property developer, Chief Moroof Owonla, has been made a guest of the Lagos State Task Force at its detention centre, Oshodi, Lagos.
Owonla’s arrest was effected last week Friday afternoon, when he was alerted to the fact that his property was a subject of vandalization at Robinson Street, Ajao Estate Lagos.
Prior to the invasion and waton destruction of his property, he had been involved in a running battle with the power brokers at Alausa seat of Lagos State government over a sprawling property in Etegbin in Ojo Local Government Area of the state, where his espanse of land is also located.
According to insider sources, the businessman victim was said to have detoured his journey to Alausa, where he had wanted to meet with the state Commissioner for Physical Planning over the purported petitions against the citing of his filling station, only for him to meet officials in the midst of hoodlums, with some armed policemen destroying his source of living.
He was said to have asked questions from the official vandals, who apparently regarded his questions as an affront. In the heat of argument, he was reportedly manhandled by the officials, who claimed that it was an order from the above.
A source who pleaded not to be name said, “Aside from physicalIn assault, Chief Moroof and one of his aides were later arrested, detained without a formal charge, while his multimillion naira vehicle was wantonly destroyed.”
Enquiries at Alausa, the Lagos seat of power indicated that there had been a flurry of petitions against the location of the now vandalised petrol station by some community members, which the ministry flimsly relied upon to carry out the destruction, without recoursing to the court of law.
However, Chief Moroof Owonla differs, saying that the vandalization of his property was done with malice aforethought.
According to him, “all the necessary documents needed or required by the law have been obtained legally. It is a way of calling a dog a bad name in order to hang it. It is a way of silencing me so that my initial case against the government, over mayhem at Etegbin, concerning the shooting to death of a Police Sergeant and others which is pending at Abuja would be frustrated. I am a law abiding citizen after all.”
Owonla advanced further that immediately after his arrest, his photographs were splashed in the social media in an apparent move to paint him black, adding, “All I need is justice. At the end of darkness, there must be light. Darkness cannot overshaddow light. I am a chid of the light.”
