- Lawyer petitions IGP
A Lagos-based lawyer, Ejide Lawal, has petitioned the Inspector General of the Nigeria Police Force over what he described as public harassment and intimidation of some people by the Investigating Police Office [IPO] in charge of a case at the force headquarters in Abuja.
The lawyer, in the petition, alleged that the IPO Ubanwa, a Deputy Superintendent of Police and Olise, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, forcefully led one of his clients, Adedipe Adegesin, to an Automated Teller Machine ATM to withdraw money for bail.
The petition titled “Threat to life, public harassment and intimidation of Prince Adedipe Adegesin and his neigbours by DSP Ubanwa, ASP Olise and others.”
The lawyer accused the two policemen of conspiring with some people (names withheld) to forcefully eject a community of people from a vast expanse of land in Abule Egba area of Lagos State.
Lawal stated in the petition that, “We are constrained to write on behalf of our clients and also as a concerned citizen of Nigeria on how DSP Ubanwa, ASP Olise and others have been threatening the lives of our clients in order to frustrate them away from their landed property.”
The petitioner stated further that “what led credence to this matter is that our clients form a community on a vast land forming part of Abule Egba of Lagos State, which they bought from different groups of landowners of Lagos from time immemorial.”
The petition added that trouble started on the May 3, 2014 , when some accomplices, invaded Abule Egba with “quite a number of hoodlums with dangerous weapons and ammunition and started demolishing houses.”
According to the petition, “sometimes in March 2014, our clients were arrested from Lagos to the force headquarters in Abuja on an allegation of armed robbery and custody of firearms.”
The lawyer stated that “despite the fact that the Investigating Police Officer of the matter, ASP Olise, visited our client’s house in search of the alleged firearms and found nothing, he demanded the sum of one million naira to grant our clients bail from police custody.”
He continued that “our first client Adedipe Adegesin was handcuffed and in company of the IPO, taken to a bank ATM for cash withdrawal that would serve the purpose of securing his bail and that of his neighbours. In fact, when the cash in bank was not sufficient, his wife had to run around to borrow money from relations before the demanded one million naira was complete.
“Subsequently, after the collection of one million naira from our clients, the IPO in collaboration with DSP Ubanwa brought them back to the Magistrate’s Court in Lagos for arraignment and despite the fact that the magistrate, Honourable Potoku granted our clients bail, our clients have been fearfully attending courts. This is because the IPO and the prosecutor brought armed police officers to re – arrest and threaten them on each court day.”
Comments
Post a Comment