••• They are looting our ancestral land – former governorship candidate
A bitter land dispute has erupted in Oba-Ile, Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo state, as the SAO Descendants Union has publicly disowned former governorship candidate, Professor Olu Williams Aderounmu, accusing him of illegally selling portions of their ancestral land worth over ₦200 million.
In a statement signed by High Chief Tunde Afare Faloye (SAO of Oba-Ile), Chief Olusola Aderounmu (Obaloja of Oba-Ile), Chief Abayomi Faloye (Osoore of Oba-Ile), and Elder Igbekele Fabilola (Secretary), the family insisted that Prof. Aderounmu “is not one of us by blood” and therefore lacks inheritance rights to their land.
According to them, their ancestry traces to Pa Ogundari, who fathered Pa Ezekiah Aderounmu and his sister, Usiade. Usiade, the mother of Prof. Olu Aderounmu, married an Akure man and “had no land or farm in Oba-Ile.”
“He only bears the Aderounmu name because our family raised him after his mother returned from a failed marriage. That does not make him a son of the soil by blood,” the statement read.
The family further accused him of selling several parcels of land to unsuspecting buyers.
“Any land sold by him is illegal, null, and void. Buyers have only purchased trouble,” the family warned, while also alleging that the professor uses his political connections to intimidate rightful landowners.
They petitioned the police, DSS, EFCC, and other agencies to investigate and prosecute the alleged land fraud.
Prof. Olu Aderounmu Fires Back
Reacting to the allegations, Prof. Aderounmu dismissed the claims as false and politically motivated.
He insisted that he is a legitimate member of the family through his maternal line and that his late grandfather had allocated 24 plots of cocoa farmland to his mother in recognition of her care before his death in 1948.
“My mother’s name was given to me when I entered primary school. She was the one who sponsored my education. That land was given to her directly by my grandfather, and I am only protecting what rightfully belongs to her and her children,” he said.
The professor further accused some family chiefs of being the real land grabbers.
“They are the ones who have been selling off almost all the family land and sharing the proceeds among themselves. They are afraid of me because I am the only one challenging their illegal sales,” he alleged.
He maintained that he has never illegally sold any family land, pointing instead to two separate High Court judgments that, according to him, restrained the chiefs from disposing of ancestral property.
“I have court judgments to prove my case. If they claim I sold land, they should take me to court again. I have not sold a single plot illegally,” he stated.
Prof. Aderounmu also denied using political influence, saying his relationship with the political class has nothing to do with the dispute.
“Dragging the governor into this matter is baseless. They are simply trying to tarnish my name because I stopped them from recklessly selling land that belongs to generations yet unborn,” he added.
The Battle Continues
While the SAO family insists the former governorship candidate is an impostor and usurper, Prof. Aderounmu maintains that he is protecting his late mother’s legitimate inheritance. Both parties are holding on to their claims with documents and petitions already filed before security agencies and courts.
The crisis has now left many buyers of Oba-Ile land uncertain of their investments, as both sides trade accusations of fraud, betrayal, and land grabbing.
