28th May, 2012
A housing development firm, Five Seven Ventures Limited, has called on the acting Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Muhammed Abubakar, over the continued harassment and intimidation of its workers by some ‘unscrupulous’ police officers.
The firm had earlier petitioned the Force Headquarters over an alleged threat to lives of its workers by some land speculators who have also been constantly invading its property at Owode Egba Local Government Area of Ogun State, by sending hoodlums after them.
Sequel to the petition, the IGP ordered investigation into the matter, which led to the arrest of some of the suspects, who were later said to have been released on bail pending further investigation.
But recently, the firm alleged in a statement that some police officers had been harassing and intimidating its workers on its site over frivolous allegations in order to unjustly arrest them and pave way for further invasion by the suspected land speculators and thugs.
“Some of these officers at times claim to come from the office of the AIG, Zone II, Federal SARS, Adeniji Adele and Ogun State Police Command, Eleweran, Abeokuta,” it stated.
While appealing to the IGP to come to its aid, the firm urged him to purge the bad eggs trying to sabotage his efforts to bring sanity into the police force.
The petition dated 8 February 2012, written by a legal practitioner, John Olowo, stated in part that “it is in our resolve that nobody is above the law that necessitated this SOS petition to your esteemed office particularly, since it appears that police within Ogun State and its environs cannot handle these hoodlums owing to their overbearing influence within the community.”