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The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Tunji Disu, has reportedly cautioned officers of the Force Intelligence Department (FID) and other police formations against encouraging forum shopping by complainants.
The police chief was also said to have warned men and officers of the force against getting involved in matters deemed civil in nature but disguised as criminal to invoke the powers of the police.
A senior police source told our correspondent that the IGP’s directive followed an alleged attempt by a resident of a Lekki estate, who is said to be indebted to her estate management for electricity and service charges, to secure the arrest, detention and prosecution of the leadership of the GThomes Estate Residents Association, Lekki, in an attempt to for a reconnection to estate services.
It was gathered that the complainant initially reported the matter at the Ilasan Divisional Police Station, Lekki, where she was advised to either pay her debts to the estate or pursue civil remedies regarding her alleged disconnection from the estate’s power supply after reportedly failing to pay electricity bills and service charges amounting to over N5 million accrued over more than one year.
According to information available to our correspondent, the complainant subsequently escalated the matter to the Area J Command in Ibeju-Lekki without success before taking the complaint to the Zone 2 Police Command Headquarters in Onikan, Lagos.
The matter was also reportedly presented to the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Annex, Alagbon, Lagos. However, police authorities at the various formations allegedly declined to intervene, maintaining that the dispute was essentially civil rather than criminal in nature.
The complainant thereafter took the matter to the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the estate reportedly secured an order of the Federal High Court, Lagos Division, on Monday, September 7, directing the police to maintain the status quo pending the determination of a suit challenging an invitation issued by the FID in Abuja.
The invitation had requested members of the estate leadership to appear in Abuja for interrogation.
Counsel to the estate’s executive committee, Olayinka Olajuwon, argued in a Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure (FREP) suit before Justice Friday Ogazi, that requiring his clients to travel to Abuja in connection with a dispute that is fundamentally civil in nature would amount to an infringement of their constitutional rights and impose undue hardship.
According to the lawyer, the estate, the complainant and all members of the estate leadership are resident in Lagos, making the Abuja invitation unreasonable under the circumstances.
Olajuwon further contended that the involvement of the FID in a matter that had previously been reviewed by the Lagos Annex of the FCID was suspicious and suggested an attempt at forum shopping by influential individuals seeking to use law enforcement agencies to intimidate, harass or pressure his clients.
“This is a clear case of abuse of police time and resources,” the lawyer said.
The respondents in the suit are expected to appear before Justice Ogazi later this month to show cause why the reliefs sought by the applicants should not be granted.
