Alleged land-grabbing case gets messier as Maharaj Ji raises alarm over arrest of 5 security men

STEPHEN GBADAMOSI, IBADAN

The Founder of One Love Family, Satguru Maharaj Ji, has raised a fresh alarm over the arrest of five devotees providing security services at the Holy Land in Ibadan, following an altercation involving members of Faith and Miracle International “Illegal occupants” at Maharaj Ji Village, along the Ibadan – Lagos Expressway.

Maharaj Ji, who spoke to journalists on Tuesday, said the incident occurred on Monday when some members of the illegal occupants allegedly entered the Maharaj Ji community through an area he described as the “Holy Land,” instead of using the entrance to their illegally occupied premises.

According to him, he was not at the scene when the incident occurred, but was briefed about the development involving the illegal occupants members and security personnel working at the spiritual community.

Maharaj Ji said the illegal occupants members told the Holy Land security men that they wanted to cut some trees within the area, prompting the security personnel to question their presence and ask them to pass through their own territory.

He alleged that the illegal occupants members refused to leave the area, leading to an altercation between them and the security men guarding the Maharaj Ji community.

He said the security personnel attempted to raise the alarm over the development, but before they could do so, the illegal occupants members made a call to the police and gave out a false information and before the Maharaj Ji devotees could utilise a peaceful means to resolving the matter, the monitoring team of the Oyo State Police Command arrived at the location and arrested five of them.

Maharaj Ji identified those arrested as Ogochukwu Ogonna, Chijoke Orji, Osike Itabalume, Ugonna Chukwu and Elue Mazi.

The spiritual leader said the five men were initially taken to the Tollgate Police Station before the matter was subsequently transferred to the Eleyele State Command.

“These are people doing security service here, and so, we ask for their release,” Maharaj Ji said, while appealing to the authorities to intervene in the matter.

He described the arrested individuals as members of the community who were performing security duties within the Holy Land and expressed concern over their continued detention.

He said the area was regarded as part of the spiritual land and “that visitors or outsiders” were expected to follow the appropriate access arrangements. Maharaj Ji said the situation could have been avoided, if the parties had respected the boundaries and protocols governing the Holy Land.

According to him, the latest incident was another development in the disagreement between the One Love Family and “the illegal occupants Faith and Miracle International, led by Pastor Adetuberu masking as Pastor G. F. David, specifically for this dangerous mission.

“We have protocols on this spiritual land, and they breached the protocol.”

The spiritual leader also appealed to the police and other relevant authorities to examine the circumstances surrounding the arrest of the five security men and ensure that the matter was handled according to the law.

“This is the usual demonic game of the land grabbers always using the police to suppress and terrorise us in the past and it failed,” he said.

He added that the development should not be allowed to worsen the existing disagreement “between us and the illegal occupants,” urging Pastor Adetuberu “and his clique of terrorists” to pursue peaceful and lawful means to prevent further loss of lives.

“It is worthy of mention that since 1987, this unhabitable bush has been transformed into the Centre of Peace and Conflict Resolution and from dusk to dawn, devotees engage in meditation sessions for peace, love and harmony in the land, as a precursor of the imminent Golden Age of Life, with Ibadan as the Holy City and Nigeria the New Holy Land of the universe.

“This land has received the blessings of all our notable obas, chiefs, icons, kings, governors and presidents, late and living, who have been part of this global grace that has saved Nigeria from war. It is neither religious nor political affair, something that has become the bedrock of our present unity in diversity, because The Lord is here,” he said.

He said it would be recalled that the land grabbers involved in “this fake criminal deals, Okon, Ige, Engr. Olatunji Olagoke, Atere and General Adeleke were all invited to Osogbo and the Police Headquarters in Abuja, but they did not show up, and when Osogbo directed that a warrant of arrest be issued on them, unpatriotic police aided them to go underground, only to reappear in different forms again and again with new homes and companies to trespass on our lands.”