Incorporated Trustees of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, aka Deeper Life Bible Church, has been dragged to court over an expanse of land measuring 41.44 hectares.
The Baale (village head) of Agbodi Village, Obafemi Owode Local Government Area in Ogun State, Chief Taiwo Ogunkoayode and his chiefs instituted the suit No AB/246/14, claiming N1 million as damages against the church for trespassing on their land.
The claimants, who include Oluhunmi Esuruoso, Ezekiel Afolabi Sobowale, Olanrewaju Okanmolu, Chief Taiwo Ogunkayode, Alani Idowu and Prince Muraina Bamjoko are seeking the Ogun High Court sitting in Abeokuta to restrain the church, her agents, servants or privies from further trespassing or dealing with the said parcel of land.
They claimed that the land in dispute forms part of the village land, which is possessed by various families in the village.
The claimants said in 2008 they noticed that the defendant (church) entered the disputed land, attempted to fence it and erected signboards with inscription that the land was the site of her proposed university.
They said they immediately challenged the church and vehemently opposed the act of the defendant, which eventually led to series of meetings convened by the church in which she gave various contradicted, uncoordinated and unsubstantiated story of how she acquired the land.
The claimants further claimed that instead of the church meeting their demand, the church reported the matter to various institutions, which meetings she also boycotted when asked to produce her right to or title deed of the land.
