…as lawyer petitions IGP
By Okosun Dennis
This is certainly not the best of time for the Inspector General of Police Monitoring Unit, Lagos annex as Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu has been petitioned over a failed attempt of an Assistant Superintendent of Police attached to the team to obtain N500,000 bribe from a suspect and subsequently frozen his bank account.
The petitioner, Barrister Giwa Amu of (CHACOLE & DARDA CHAMBERS) alleged that the officer, ASP Fakunle was said to have on the 7th October, 2020 written to his clients’ bank, Zenith Bank Plc, demanding that his client’s bank account be frozen.
Consequent upon the said request by ASP Fakunle, who is said to be notorious for collecting gratification and who acted on the instructions of his boss, CSP Ngozi Braide, head of IGP Monitoring Unit, Lagos Annex, “our clients’ bank account was illegally frozened leading our client to a loss of over N100,000,000:00 (One hundred million naira) only.”
He added that “till date, the said account has remained frozened on the request of ASP Fakunle.”
In his petition titled: “RE: UNLAWFUL & CRIMINAL CLOSURE OF ZENITH BANK ACCOUNTS NO 1014960665 STAROPHIC PROPERTIES LTD,” dated 24th November, 2020, it was learnt that trouble started when “our Clients were invited on the 23rd September, 2020 to have an interview with CSP Ngozi Braide based on an allegation of fraudulent conversion and threat to life allegedly reported to the Inspector General of Police Force, Headquarters, Abuja, Nigeria.
Chief Giwa Amu explained in the petition that based on the inability of his Clients to meet the appointment in Lagos on Monday 28th September, 2020 for the said interview, “our Clients instructed our office to write to the office of the IGP Monitoring Unit, Force Headquarters Annex, Obalende, Lagos.
The purpose for the writing was to inform the said office of the absence of his Clients and they, accordingly, gave an undertaking to produce both Clients on the 6th October, 2020.
In fulfillment of their committal letter earlier, on the 6th October, 2020 “we produced our Clients and consequent upon which their statements were taken and bail granted.
“Unfortunately, they were not released from the Police custody because of a demand for bribe of N500,000:00 (Five hundred thousand naira) made by one ASP Fakunle on the instructions of CSP Ngozi Braide.”
Despite having told ASP Fakunle that the case for which his clients were held was before a court of competent jurisdiction, Barr Giwa Amu continued, “the police went ahead to detain our Clients under the guise of investigation as contained by the suit in Court, in Suit No: LD/7037/GCMM/2020 STARHORIC PROPERTIES LIMITED vs. SULIPEX HOMES & PROPERTIES LIMITED & FOBEM ENGINEERING AND SERVICES LIMITED”.
Investigations, however, revealed that Barr Giwa Amu had on the 7th October, 2020 petitioned IGP Mohammed Adamu for illegal detention and demand for N500,000 for bail by operatives of IGP Monitoring Unit in Lagos Annex.
The petitioner had also alleged that his clients, Mr Sunday Enebechi and Mr Chinedu Paschal Ojukwu, were detained at the police cell on October 6, 2020 without bail.
He further pointed out that the inability of his Clients to provide the said money made ASP Fakunle to detain him in Police custody and threatened not to release him until the money was provided. However, his client was only released after four days of being held in police custody.
Based on the foregoing, the petitioner is praying IGP Mohammed Adamu to use his good offices to cause a detailed investigation of this matter noting that their clients are unfairly treated by the police considering the case was already before a court of competent jurisdiction.
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