- A female legal practitioner, Uju Ken-Ohanenye, has petitioned the commissioner of police in Enugu state, Danmallam Mohammed
- The police boss is being petitioned over controversy concerning the ownership of some plots of land in the state
- Ken-Ohanenye is appealing to the police IG to call the Enugu state police commissioner to order and allow the cause of justice and fair play to prevail
The commissioner of police in Enugu, Danmallam Mohammed, is currently enmeshed in a controversy over the ownership of some plots of land in the state.
The police boss has also been accused of frustrating the execution of a court judgement issued by an Enugu state high court.
In a petition to the inspector general of police dated Monday, February 12, the CP Mohammed was alleged to have conspired with a House of Representative member, Hononurable Chukwuemeka Ujam, to pervert the cause of justice on the real ownership of the land.
Copies of the petition sent to the IGP. Photo credit: Mrs Uju Ken-Ohanenye
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In the petition written by a female legal practitioner, Uju Ken-Ohanenye, she claimed to have purchased plots of land at a specified area after which she perfected all relevant government papers to establish her ownership in 2013.
The petitioner lamented that shortly after perfecting the papers, politicians in the government of Enugu state allegedly trespassed on her land and confiscated the plots by distributing them among themselves. She said in order to redress the injustice against her, she instituted a court action against the Attorney General of Enugu state as well as the commissioner in charge of land in the state.
She added that on July 21, 2016 a landmark judgement was delivered by Justice A.R. Ozoemena in her favour nullifying the purported confiscation of the land by trespassers. Justice Ozoemena in the judgement barred the defendants and their agents from depriving her of ownership of the land and that in the event the land is needed in the public interest, the defendant must first pay her adequate compensation for the improvement effected on the land. Besides, the court held that the defendants or their agents cannot revoke her fundamental interest in the property and also granted the restraining order against them.
The petitioner further explained that in the attempt to reclaim the land she registered the judgement delivered in her favour and requested the court for the execution of the judgement to enable the land to be recovered from the trespassers. She further stated that the court authority notified the commissioner of police on their decision to execute the judgement through court official after which the police in response deployed his eight policemen to the court officials for the purpose of executing the judgement.
She said after recovering the land from the trespassers, a House of Representative member, Honourable Chukwuemeka Ujam, who was a commissioner for land in the state at the time she purchased the land, showed up to claim ownership of the land and met with the police commissioner for an assistance to chase her away from her land.
According to her, after the lawmaker had met with the police chief, the court judgement and enroll order granted in her favour by the high court in 2016 were ignored by the Enugu police boss, and his men have since laid siege on the land to deprive her of the ownership. She explained that several attempts by the high court officials to enforce the judgement were thwarted and frustrated by the police chief on the instruction of the federal lawmaker.
She, therefore, appealed to the IGP to call the Enugu state police commissioner to order and allow the cause of justice and fair play to prevail in her ordeal. She regretted that as at the time she completed all government papers on the land, the two defendants in the case did not file appeal at the court of Appeal in Enugu but instead have been using crude power and self-help through the assistance of the police commissioner to frustrate the execution of the judgement to deprive her of the ownership of the land
NAIJ.com efforts to get the reaction of the force police public relations officer, Mr. Jimoh Moshood was not successful as at the time this report was published.
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Meanwhile, the direct phone numbers of police commissioners across the country have been made public by the Nigeria Police Force.
The decision was taken after the Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris gave a directive on the disarmament and recovery of prohibited firearms, ammunition and weapons in the possession of all suspected militias, bandits, vigilante groups, neighbourhood watch and other groups or individual(s) or bodies.
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Source: Naija.ng