……. Out of 18 court cases between the two families since 1988, the Fawehinmis won 17 while the Fasimoyes won 1 through fraud and that fraudulent victory was later set aside!
Initially, we had resolved to ignore the latest round of falsehoods swirling around our ancestral farmland, known as the High Chief Lisa Alujoonu Fawehinmi Estate of Ondo Kingdom, Ondo West Local Government Area of Ondo State (which some trespassers/buyers now wrongfully describe as Canaan City Crescent, Fagun, Ondo City), believing that law-breakers who refuse to obey valid court orders deserve no amplification. Our initial resolve was not to add undeserving honor to those the courts had severally referred to as fraudulent and document simulators. Yet, the deliberate misinformation published on August 22, 2025, by Periscope News under the headline “Residents accuse police of backing land invasion, demand IGP’s intervention” has characteristically tried to leave the public with a picture that is exactly the opposite of the truth. For the record, we now speak.
THE TRUE STORY:
The High Chief Lisa Alujoonu Fawehinmi Family of Ondo Kingdom issues this comprehensive rebuttal to set the record straight regarding the persistent falsehoods being peddled by the Fasimoye family and their cohorts about our ancestral land at Fagun, Ondo City. These fabrications, most recently amplified in their August 22, 2025, Periscope News publication, demand an authoritative response grounded in verifiable facts, court judgments, and documented evidence.
Our ownership of this land predates any Fasimoye claim. Historical records and the native laws and customs of Ondo Kingdom confirm our family’s ancestral rights. It must be put on record that the first Fasimoye in Ondo Kingdom, Samuel Aina Fasimoye, was a captured slave of the Fawehinmi family. Our progenitor, the High Chief Lisa Alujoonu Fawehinmi I, the then Oba Jiwomo (1826-1833)’s army generalissimo, had captured the senior Fasimoye during a raid on Irele village. The Alujoonu Fawehinmi usually put his captives on their betrothed land from their father, Pa Fayemohun, after sharing his spoils of war with the then King, Oba Jiwomo.
The Fawehinmi progenitor, Pa Fayemohun, was earlier granted the vast land from his in-law, Oba Ajisowo (1786-1802) having married the King’s first daughter, Princess Adesomerun, who begat three male children, Famuditimi, Fadelere, and Fawehinmi. The King had become so overjoyed that he not only granted the royal couple the vast land but also gave them a magnificent storey building, otherwise known today as No. 1, Igbonkuta Street, Ode Ondo. The said building still stands magnificently till this day, complete with its legendary myth.
The native law and custom grants of Ondo Kingdom vested this parcel of land in our family long before 1958—the year the Fasimoyes falsely claimed our forefathers leased the land in question from theirs. Tuja Camp existed before 1958, as the relics of the first school the Fawehinmis erected on their land for their tenant’s children predated 1950, before the then Western Region helped standardize it in 1955. Indeed, some of Fawehinmi’s earlier tenants had agreements predating 1948.
Also unknown to the Fasimoyes are the descendants of the captured Fawehinmi’s slaves born on the land, some today are as old as 99 years, whose welfare today has become the responsibility of the Fawehinmi Descendant Family due to old age. One therefore wonders how a purported Tenancy Agreement of 1958 allegedly granted by Samuel Aina Fasimoye to Pa E.M.O. Fawehinmi, which purports to convey land already vested in our family since 1788 AD shouldn’t be treated as a criminal liability against the sponsors of such fraud.
THE BEGINNING OF COURT CASES:
In 1988, when most of the Fawehinmi’s progenitors were dead, leaving matters mostly in the hands of women, realizing the family’s vulnerability, the wickedness in human nature caused a desire in one of the then Fawehinmi’s captured slaves, Pa Samuel Aina Fasimoye, the immediate father of Michael and Henry Fasimoye, to file a suit, HOD/58/88, at the High Court without any documentary evidence to support his claim. However, he met the unexpected resilience he had thought was nonexistent; the women, ably led by the then Madam Mosekola Fawehinmi family, filed a defense and pleaded documents.
The strength of the Fawehinmi case forced the Fasimoyes to abandon the matter, and for lack of diligent prosecution and want of evidence, the suit, 9 years after filing and a record 23 adjournments due to their non-appearance in court and the litany of excuses from their lawyer (who still represents them till today), was finally struck out in 1997. Shockingly, in 2016, 19 years after the case was struck out, the Fasimoye children, who had previously remained silent, suddenly resuscitated the dead suit and began producing and circulating fraudulent documents, hitherto alien to their own father and never seen before by the Fawehinmis. They got their only court victory through the fake documents.
Thankfully, however, in Suit No. AK/35C/2019 (State v. Michael Fasimoye & 2 Others), the court, at page 44, paragraph 3, held that “the signature of E.M.O. Fawehinmi on Exhibit Q3 was simulated.” This forensic and judicial finding fundamentally undermined the Fasimoyes’ entire claim, exposing their reliance on forged documents.
In the case under reference, the Court held at page 44, paragraph 3, that “the signature of E.M.O Fawehinmi on Exhibit Q3 was indeed simulated.” Although the court did not convict the Fasimoyes due to insufficient evidence to prove who forged the document, it remained resolute that the document before the court was forged.
Sequel to this finding, the Court in Suit No. HOD/23/2023 delivered a decisive victory for our family, explicitly setting aside the defendants’ case in Suit No. HOD/15/2016. When the Fasimoyes sought a Stay of Execution, the trial court refused. Their desperate appeal to the Court of Appeal in Appeal No. CA/AK/174/2023 met the same fate, as it was struck out on October 10, 2024.
These judgments form an unbroken chain confirming our rightful ownership and exposing the Fasimoyes’ fraudulent claims to our land.
VIOLENCE AND BRIGANDAGE
The violent tendencies and banditry of the Fasimoyes are legendary.
For over three decades, the Fasimoyes and their agents have waged a campaign of terror against innocent tenants on our land, documented in six successful fundamental rights suits. Justices Ikujini, Akeredolu, and Enikuomehin have variously ruled in our tenants’ favour, awarding cumulative damages in excess of ₦5 million for illegal arrest, unlawful detention, and torture.
A police investigation report dated November 21, 2023, formally cleared our family and advised all security agencies to cease harassing our people. In the latest act of desperation, on August 20, 2025, a self-professed American returnee and discharged marine, acting as an agent of the Fasimoyes, invaded our land with ten fully armed soldiers.
Every purported sale, lease, construction, or development by the Fasimoyes or their agents on our land violates the doctrine of lis pendens and is therefore void ab initio and constitutes contempt of court.
OUR DEMANDS:
Premised on the above facts, we demand:
- Immediate withdrawal of any residual police protection enjoyed by the Fasimoyes and their agents.
- Completion of the ongoing military orderly-room trial of the ten soldiers involved in the August 20 invasion.
- Initiation of contempt proceedings against every person involved in land transactions during ongoing litigation.
- Full retraction and public apology from Periscope News for its slanderous allegations.
CONCLUSION:
The facts are immutable: court judgments, forensic evidence, police reports, and documented human rights violations all vindicate our family’s rightful ownership. We remain committed to peaceful resolution through legal channels but will pursue all available remedies to protect our ancestral heritage and defend our oppressed tenants.
Signed,
Eni Amin Ororo Olorun,
Senior Pastor Olanrewaju Fawehinmi,
For the High Chief Lisa Alujoonu Fawehinmi Family of Ondo Kingdom.
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