15th July, 2010
In a bid to forestall the perversion of justice by the men of the Nigeria Police in the office of the Inspector General of Police in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, a Lagos businessman, Alhaji Safienu Iliyasu, has dragged the Inspector General of Police before a Federal High Court in Lagos State.
Also joined as co-defendants in the ensuing legal battle are the Commissioner of Police, Special Anti-Robbery Squad Police, CID Annex, Adeniji Adele, Lagos, the Attorney General of the Federation and a transporter Alhaji Uba Usman.
According to an affidavit by Iliyasu filed before the court by the law firm of Victor Ibharalu, the deponent alleged that sometime in March this year, when he got an order from Topcee Food Nigeria Limited company to convey rice to Razam Investment and Distribution company’s office at Abuja, he contacted Alhaji Abubakar Musa for trucks.
Five trucks were supplied and loaded with 3,000 bags of rice valued at N21 million but the goods were not delivered to Razam. Since then, Musa, and the drivers of the trucks have gone into hiding.
Consequently, a petition dated 19 March was forwarded to the Inspector General of Police who sent a signal to the commissioner of police in charge of Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Adeniji Adele, Lagos State.
In their investigation, two out of three suspects who received the goods were arrested. One of them is the fourth defendant in this case, Usman.
With 488 bags of rice left in his warehouse, Usman allegedly admitted to have bought three of the five trucks at half the cost price. He pleaded not to be exposed as he undertook to pay N6,918,000 and also wrote a post dated cheque on 30 June, 2010 for N2,000,000 and returned the bags of rice found in his warehouse.
Surprisingly on 7 March a signal signed by DC Bature from Force Headquarters in Abuja requested for the case file to be transferred to Abuja. Sensing foul play, another petition was sent to the Inspector General of Police by the applicant which foiled the attempt to transfer the case.
However, just days after the directive was received, another signal was sent to the office of Inspector General of police, insisting on the transfer of the case file.
Thereafter the applicant was declared to be arrested by the Inspector General of Police for petitioning the police over bags of rice that were diverted and looted.
Alhaji Illiyasu averred that he believes the purpose of seeking to transfer the matter to the Inspector General’s office at Abuja is to pervert the course of justice and sweep the matter under the carpet.
The applicant contended that if the case file is transferred to Abuja he will be subjected to enormous inconveniences, as he will have to be travelling to Abuja every time to monitor the progress of the case.
Therefore it will be injustice if he, who is the complainant, is subjected to such hardship simply because Usman can manipulate the situation.
The applicant urged the court not only to stop the transfer of the case file to Abuja but to also restrain the respondents and their agents from harassing him or arresting him pending the hearing and determination of the substantive application.