By Kayode Adeoti
Aishat Issa, a 38-year-old mother of two, who has been bedridden for eight years following a spinal cord injury she sustained in a ghastly motor accident, has cried out for help over the demolition of her rented apartment by the landlord.
Aishat, who resides at Kilanko area, Offa Garage in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, alongside three other tenants, told this medium at the weekend that on the instruction of one Hon Ayo Idowu, the father of the property owner, her mother paid the sum of N90,000 to his wife who resides in the same area.
According to her, the money which was paid sometimes in July was to cover rent from April 2017-March 2018.
To Aishat’s dismay, Hon Idowu stormed the compound with labourers last week ordering them to pull down the building, without prior notice.
She further stressed that during the demolition a roofing sheet fell off, thereby cutting her left leg deeply while her children were trying to push her on wheelchair to a safe place in the house.
“They didn’t tell us anything when they came, but I overheard Hon. Idowu instructing his boys to be fast. When I heard the sound of hammer on the wall, I exclaimed, telling my children (13-yr-old girl and 11-yr-old boy) to put me on the chair and wheel me to a safe place.
“Because they were pulling down the building in haste, one of the zinc removed by them fell on my leg. My pain was that our rent is not due yet,” Aishat divulged.
Speaking with our reporter, Aishat’s mother, Mrs Mero Issa confirmed paying rent last July following threat by the landlord’s father to eject her family from the house.
“When Barrister Azeez Adebayo came with a quit notice, I called honourable who later told me his son, Bolaji Idowu owns the building and he wants to carry out general renovation on it,” Mrs Issa divulged.
Meanwhile, the counsel to the tenants, Obafemi Olawale however condemned the action of the landlord saying he should not have resorted to self help in order to eject the house occupants.
“We will surely take necessary step on the issue, what they did is contrary to law, they were not supposed to resort to self help, no matter what….,โ he submitted.
Responding on Saturday, Hon Idowu denied ownership of the structure even as he noted that his son, Bolaji Idowu who resides abroad bought it some years back.
Bolaji however spoke with our reporter from the United Kingdom at the weekend stating that the tenants had earlier been issued quit notice since last year to vacate the property but they refused to leave.
“I bought the building for about N11m in 2011 from the former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman in the state.
โI came to Nigeria purposely because of the house but the state I met it was not habitable, so I informed my lawyer that I needed to carry out general renovation on it and my legal representative issued them three months quit notice on 14th August, 2017. But they’ve fragrantly disobeyed the court order.
โI almost cried the last time I was in Nigeria seeing the building in a deplorable state. I own the property yet I could not say it’s mine because the tenant had insisted on staying inside the building despite the quit notice. I have employed all means to eject them but none has worked. That was why we resorted to removing the roofing sheets and even demolishing some parts,” he explained.
Meanwhile efforts to speak with counsel of the landlord, Barr. Isaac Adebayo proved abortive as his mobile phone failed to connect.
