NRC clarifes Osun railway land dispute, accuses mischief makers of incitement

The Nigerian Railway Corporation has accused mischief makers of driving religious sentiment into a railway land dispute in Osun between two temporary allotees.

It said they were inciting members of the public, especially Muslims, against the management of the corporation.
The NRC in a statement on Saturday described as malicious reports by some online publications last Wednesday that the corporation was planning to cause a religious crisis over the land matter.
Even as it stated that it had commenced investigation into the dispute, it urged “the good people of Osun and indeed the general public to disregard any malicious claim to disrupt the peace in Osun State.”
The statement read in part, “Our attention has been drawn to inciting reports by Sun News Online and several other social
media platforms on Wednesday 6th April 2022 captioned ‘MUSLIM GROUP RAISES ALARM OVER ALLEGED PLAN BY NRC TO CAUSE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN OSUN’.
“The report alleged that the NRC officials are taking steps to convert a piece of land already
granted to the Muslim Community for use as a Muslim prayer ground for the use of one Pastor Solomon”.
‘The management of NRC/RPMCL wishes to clarify the very grave allegations levelled against the officials and to bring to the notice of the general public that the social media reports did not in any way portray a true picture of the issue at hand. The management is therefore clarifying the purported allegations as follows:
1. The management of Railway Property Management Company Limited wishes to
categorically state that the issue in contention is between two temporary allottees on
Railway land who have misunderstanding over boundaries. Efforts have been made to
resolve the problem with no success.
2. A piece of land measuring 20m2 was allocated to one Lateef Oriade on Temporary permit in 2015. Another piece of land measuring 56m2 was allocated to one Bukola Solomon in 2016 and both allottees have been occupying the space since 2015 and 2016 respectively.
3. In November 2021, one Imam and his son came and complained about an attempt by someone wanting to claim the land. The Area Manager in trying to resolve the issue, went with the complainant to the said site. On getting to the site, the manager discovered that
the land in question was the one allocated to Lateef Oriade which the Imam claimed that
the land was transferred to him even though there was no evidence to back that claim.
4. The Area Manager discovered that the space being occupied by the Imam is 372m2 as against the 20m2 on the letter of allocation to Lateef Oriade. But the Imam claimed that the space allocated to them is 372m2 and the 56m2 allocated to Bukola Solomon. The area manager further directed that both the Imam (representing Lateef Oriade) and Bukola Solomon should apply for the regularization of their allocation since the allocation in their
possession is a temporary permit which they both promised to comply.
5. However, instead of them applying for the regularization, the Area Manager received a
report that the two tenants continued their disagreement over the matter. To this note, the area manager gave both of them a six months revocation notice due to their refusal to
reconcile and to comply with the directive to regularize their stay.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we do not have any record of allocation to any Imam, Muslim Community nor any pastor, as such, the claim to incite any religious crisis might be the handiwork of mischief makers. In any case management has ordered an immediate investigation of the matter
and have already contacted all the key parties.
“The good people of Osun State and indeed the general public should disregard any malicious claim to disrupt the peace in Osun State.”