67-year-old man in ‘house arrest’ since January

What could have restricted a man to the four walls of his house for almost four months? ill-health?
Security concern? Surprisingly neither of these is responsible for 67-year-old Pa Solomon Olanrewaju’s self-incarceration since Jan­uary 26, when one of his two houses situated on Number 9, Lanre Akintunde close, off Road VI Abesan Housing Es­tate, Aminkanle, Lagos, was demolished by some people.
And now the fear of being ren­dered homeless at his old age has made him to resort to self-incar­ceration in the last few months. Pa Olanrewaju told Sunday Sun that he had been living in the building since 2001 without any form of harassment over the property until December 13, 2014 when a popular hotelier (name withheld) in the area stormed his premises in company with some thugs and demanded that he vacated the building because ac­cording to them, the land on which the houses were built had been sold to a new owner.
“The group was sent to my house by a community leader in the area and two other persons (name withheld). When they delivered the message, I made them realise that it was not possible. We argued over the matter for a long time before they left that day,” he alleged.
Unknown to Pa Olanrewaju, the group had surreptitiously planned to strike when he least expected and January 26, 2015 provided the opportunity for them to strike. “On 26th of January, I went out and I couldn’t get back home on time. I think that was the day Buhari came to Lagos for his electioneering campaign. So the traffic situation was so chaotic. I was still on my way home, when people were calling me to inform me that those people had started demolishing one of the buildings.
“Before I got home, the building had been reduced to rubbles. Surprisingly, the land was sold to a new owner who began construction on it immediately,” Pa Olanrewaju claimed.
Jolted by this development, Pa Olanrewaju headed for Aminkanle Police Post where he was told to take his case to Alagbado Police Station. “At Alagbado Police Station, my complaint was not given the seriousness it deserved so I returned home,” he said.
Still smarting from the loss of his first house, Pa Olanrewaju was hit by another shocking news as indication emerged that the second building which he currently occu­pies has been sold to three different people by the same set of people who sold the first one.
“My major fear is that I have received information that they have sold the remaining one to three different people and they are now looking for an avenue to demolish it. From the feelers, they are plan­ning to strike when I go out. This is the reason I have not been going out in the last few months.
“My plea now is that the govern­ment and well-meaning Nigerians should come to my aid. Don’t allow these people to render me homeless at my age. I can’t afford to raise money for rent again. For how long will I continue to remain indoor? Nigerians please assist me, save me from the humiliation of being rendered homeless at my old age,” he pleaded
Asked if he made any effort to report the matter to any other authority when it became clear that the police would not give the matter the seriousness it deserved as he claimed, Pa Olanrewaju said, “ Yes, I wrote a letter to Center for Mediation of Conflict in Alausa when the first building was demol­ished but I am yet to hear anything from them. As I am talking to you, my life is not safe because some of their boys had on number of occa­sions threatened to kill me on this matter. One of them even described me as a small fry.
“I have been living in the house since 2011. I am one of the benefi­ciaries of the Masses Movement of Nigeria, a project of the late Moji Obasanjo. But later when we heard that the land belonged to the Lagos State government, we decided to approach the state government on how they could help us. The Lagos State government promised to regularize things for us. There was even a time the entire buildings in the area were marked for demo­lition because they said the land was a government acquisition. But Fashola personally visited the area and said that we should be left alone because the encroachment had seriously distorted the state government’s plan for the area.
“We were later told to pay small amount of money which I think is for the survey and I have paid part of it,” he said.