Setting The Record Straight On Wrong Allegations Against Oloto Of Otto On Otumara Land Development
By Akinlade Taofik
There was an upbeat in the social media in the second week of August 2025 on a particular video made evidently by a young lad of Igbo extraction mocking the Yoruba and Lagosians for allegedly selling a large chunk of land to some prominent Igbo businessmen in the ongoing land development of the state.
That video was followed by a second video made by a Lagosian who condemned the alleged transaction sale and dragged out the name of the present Oloto of Otto as the main character responsible for the act.
He went on suggest that Yoruba companies could have been used in the proposed development of the said area.
He later revealed his ignorance by questioning the rationale of Oloto ‘s ownership of the land.
The timing of the video was made at an auspicious period when many Lagos Obas were sitting at the occasion to grace the marriage of the daughter of the Chief of Staff to the Governor of Lagos State, Tayo Ayinde in Abuja.
It tried to cast the Oba Oloto as a pariah among Obas.It was a well placed job but a poorly researched one.
By the time the maker of the said video got wind of the truth and facts of the matter, the deed had been done. The video provoked many Lagosians and elder statesmen into anger. It was a weekend buzz from Lagos princes and power brokers.
Many people demanded answers and yet another video emerged outrightly condemning the Oba. The latest one this time from a female blogger and an ethnic supremacist. She even threatened harm after pouring plenty of expletives. She easily passed as an ethnic nationality agitator and was deemed better ignored in the face of the facts on the ground.
The Oloto palace acted wisely and did its internal sanitisation by contacting and connecting with principal persons in its various Ruling Houses that no foot of land has been sold to anyone nor has it gotten its share from the government on whose purview the project site lies.
It also decided to maintain a social media silence until it was able to resolve the matter with the federal authorities.
The truth is that a land development partnership was entered into under the authority of the Federal Government. The old Otto river has been an ecological disaster with massive pollution of the surface and ground water along the mountain of refuse stretching from the Nigerian Railway tracks adjoining Otto to the foot of the Eko bridge. It has been an environmental menace with blighted and slum communities with its attendant social problems. No government will watch and fold its hands and allow such to keep multiplying.
There have been various models presented to fast track the development but this particular model sought the regulatory powers of government to approve what needs to be done while the customary owner takes charge. It bypassed government bureaucracy and allow for for easy private sector inputs.
Few weeks prior to the video, the Minister had visited the two ends of the project at Ijora Olopa to verify some aspects of the development work and engineering design. It was therefore a matter easily resolved within the Presidency when the Oloto was summoned that same weekend over the trending video.
Detractors and adversaries took their battle up to frustrate the project and alleged that an Igbo man’s company is taking over the land. It was already heads-up. The partners and owners convened with the federal authorities.
Emerging from the seat of power after laying bare all the approvals by the federal agencies, the project got a major boost with renewed public and corporate interest with corresponding financial backup. The company at the heart of the noise by ethnic “profilers” of the redevelopment of Otumara was Zenco. It was later revealed that the company had the best economic cost/benefit ratio for the project among its peers.
The Technical Joint Committee had selected Zenco for its competence, cost economics and expertise. The other three bidders were rejected on account of their higher partnership demands.
Some so-called “Yoruba companies” even demanded sixty-five percent to put in place infrastructure on the site: roads, drainage, bridges, canals, electrification, telecommunications, waste systems, water supply and other essentials.
Zenco’s offer was better by miles, quantitatively and qualitatively and even less than fifty percent. The new Oloto Duval City is meant to be better than the famed Eko Atlantic. Zenco has since deployed workers and equipment to site and doing the background fencing of the areas, commencing sand and landfills.
The company, Zenco Properties is one of the major construction companies in Eti-Osa LGA which is one of the major business hubs in Nigeria. Has anyone raised an eyebrow on any of its work, share or competence prior to this.
The promoters of the various videos bring to fore a host of issues we should all be worried about. The social media can be used albeit injurious by any ignoramus or hater to cause a major crisis in the land. We need to assign formal identity to all viral posts to know their origins and allow necessary laws to govern them.
The mischievous intentions of the promoters of the second video done by the Lagosian proved their ill motives by bringing issues among Obas to the forefront of physical development matters. There were glaring gaps in his narratives for the public to understand.
The Oloto of Otto leads the Olofin Iddo kingdom and is the biggest urban land owning family in Lagos state. Many old judgments put the Oloto of Otto in possession of land up to the Ogun river from Iddo in Lagos Mainland. Many Crown and Deemed grants are going through the test of times in various courts as other Obas sit on the Oloto land and trying to hijack the land in conflict with age old judicial pronouncements.
Previous Olotos have always asserted their authorities like HRM Oba Bashiru Abisoye Oloto is doing.
We in Otto are aware of the evolutionary developments of other settlements within our domain. Otumara was a fishing community of all and sundry who camped on the Otto river around the late 1940s to sell their water produce and became populated by mostly Ilaje people. The first Baale of Otumara was appointed by the Oloto to the present thirds after the community was split into two.
The exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Government on the Otumara land gave it a unique status like other coastal communities. Those who entered the land have been identified by the government in conjunction with the Oloto family and over three hundred persons have been compensated so far with further ones planned.
The master plan of the valley had been finalised before latter day users came in with illegal structures. Since 1982, the then Federal Government in conjunction with the Governor Jakande led state government were the first major government functionaries to visit the place before later Governors did.
The various Environmental Impact Assessment ( EIA) done along with other studies necessitate the current model adopted.
The intergovernmental relations, engineering designs, politics and cost have before now slowed down the project.
President Tinubu, however, came up with a novel private sector idea to regenerate the river and remove the opportunistic structures to make it a model city.
Who does not know that all investments made there are to the benefit of Lagos state. It is a win-win situation for all partners. Our local content issues have been taken care of. It would tremendously improve our state IGR, elevate the Oloto and create over 50,000 jobs and will impact the Nigeria’s GDP.
The investment of many none Yorubas like Dangote are massive in Lagos. Land was even donated for the petrochemical plant. Today Lagos and Nigeria are the beneficiaries. We should rise to a greater level and embrace the good initiatives of development. We all belong to humanity and the comity of nations. We as family appreciate all the concerns expressed and wish to reassure our brothers that the project is indeed in the best interests of all concerned. It will by the special grace of the Almighty Creator be a worthy one worthy of all the sacrifice.
Thanks and God bless us all.
Dr Akinlade Taofik, Oloto Prince and writer of this piece is the Chief Humanitarian Enumerator for Compensation of Otumara residents
