Hoodlums invade Lagos church with bulldozer, attack pastor, guards over land dispute
Pastor John Delano of the Holy Trinity, a church worker, and two guards narrowly escaped being lynched by thugs who invaded the church premises, located at 2, Oba Adeyemi Oyekan Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos state.
According to Vanguard, the thugs, who were over 30 in number, stormed the church with a bulldozer immediately after an early morning prayer meeting and proceeded to remove the entire front fence of the property and forcefully removed the gates.
During the invasion of the property, Pastor John Delano, David and two guards who were present, were attacked, slapped several times and physically assaulted, while security personnel hired to guard the property was almost lynched.
Vanguard reported that one of the victims, John Delano: “On Wednesday morning, I and David Neji (faculty manager for the church) were closing up after a prayer meeting from 6:00 to 7:00 am. We heard a crashing sound and we went out to investigate. The sight that greeted us was shocking. A bulldozer crashed through our gate and about 30 men rushed in.
“The man in front was yelling out orders. Everybody out! Upon hearing the orders and realising we had no option but to obey, we started heading out.
“It was then l remembered that my car key was still in the church, so l rushed back to get my key and l drove my car to a safe spot away from the church.
“When I came back to watch what was going on, I saw two of our security guys being manhandled. So I started to take photos; I switched to video. As l began to record what was going on video, one of the thugs grabbed my phone and started to walk off with it. I immediately followed him and started to entreat him so as to get my phone back. He took me to their leader, the man in green who had been yelling orders.
“He slapped me twice. The people around me started to slap me as well. They took me to the sandy side of the pavement and told me to sit on the ground.
“He left for about 10 minutes, then he came back to talk with me. He asked for my name and what l was doing there. I told him I was the pastor. He began to berate me.”
Delano further noted that prior to the invasion, there was no notification. The church paid for their lease on the land and their payment covers a period till November 2022: a term that is yet to expire.
“We had been negotiating to buy the premises from them. When negotiations broke down, they began to threaten us with eviction. We explained that there is a subsisting lease in respect of which we are the beneficiaries.
They offered to pay us to surrender the lease, we refused the offer. Thereafter, they became hostile so we instituted an action in the Lagos High Court.”
It was learned that since the attack, the Police have been somewhat reluctant to act on the matter.
A high ranking police officer claimed that Ikoyi was rife with land grabbing cases and that his hands are tied, Vanguard reports.
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