The Late Lawrenco Antonio Cardoso Family, under the leadership of its Olori-Ebi, Head of Family, Chief Tunlese Cardoso, has thrown its weight behind the owners of Oil and Gas Facilities, Container Jetties and Residential Buildings in Kirikiri Town Area of Lagos, asserting that it has resolved to put an end to the ongoing closure of all the properties in the Area.
In what Property Sector players described as a fundamental family position that could bring the seemingly intractable crisis between these property owners and some grandchildren of the late Cardoso to a resolution, the Cardoso Family declared emphatically, through a recent Advertorial that the family indeed sold or leased the properties to the affected owners and are, therefore, not a party to denying them the use of and access to products of their sweat.
The family said: “We were invited by the Police at the Zone 2 Police Command to give our statements on all the transactions our family has done on our Estate in Kirikiri Town and we want to make it clear that our family have sold and leased out the said properties in Kirikiri Town to its present occupants and we have no intention to take back the properties from the people we have sold and leased them to.”
Whilst berating the activities of a few of its family members, whom it accused of conniving with some unscrupulous land grabbers to deny those who genuinely bought or leased properties from their family their rights to enjoy their homes and business premises, it warned those concerned to desist from the unwholesome act.
The Statement, which has the signatures of the Head of the Family and other elders of the various branches of the family accused some few members of the family of despicable conduct by asking those who the family had already sold the properties to pay the sum of N5 billion if they want to retain ownership of the properties.
The Family Head and elders said further: “On our part, we have resolved to put an end to this embarrassing situation by asking every person who genuinely bought and leased their property from our family in Kirikiri Town to go and unseal their homes and business facilities.”
Coming down hard on the black legs in the family and their collaborators, the Cardoso Family called on the Inspector General of Police and other Security Agencies to arrest the ugly situation timeously.
The Statement said further: ” We urge the Inspector General of Police and heads of security agencies within the country to be mindful of the antics of these unscrupulous members of our family and their notorious land grabbing agents, who have deprived innocent residents of Kirikiri Town their means of livelihood in the last three months.” The Cardoso Family, in its public statement, specifically urged the management of all the oil marketing companies with Depots and other facilities in Kirikiri Town to go and resume their operations immediately.
It will be recalled that on Tuesday August 8, 2023, some bailiffs and officials of the High Court of Lagos State stormed Kirikiri Town and sealed off a number of Depots, other oil and gas facilities and some residential areas.
The officers were said to be carrying out a court judgement delivered on Monday June 23 2014 by Honourable Justice Jumoke Pedro, in respect of a suit filed by some nine grandchildren of the late Cardoso contesting the ownership of the properties.
Legal pundits have expressed concerns over the judgement and its fall-out, given that Depot Owners and other property owners in Kirikiri Town were not in any legal disputes with any party, neither were they a party to any suit in respect of their titles on the properties, nor were they joined as co-defendants in the suit, in which a judgement was said to have been given to seal off their business and residential premises. High level sources disclosed that mindful of the embarrassing situation and the grave economic implications of the Kirikiri Town debacle, the Lagos State Government may have decided to intervene decisively to restore sanity and bring the ugly situation to an end, through an out of court settlement, even as an appeal has been filed contesting the judgements arising from the case.