Joy Anyim
A legal practitioner, Comrade Femi Aborisade, has decried the victimisation his client, Rev. Charles Gold, by policemen, following a N14.5 million contract gone bad.
The lawyer revealed that his client, based in Ibadan, was arrested by the police and taken to Gbagi Police Station on account of a petition written by Mrs. Abigail Akintimehin, who had invested the said sum to partly finance a contract with SUBEB, Delta State, for the supply of 500 pieces laptop computers.
The contract, which was to be handled by Rev. Gold and Mr. Richard Peters had been delayed, resulting in Akintimehin, demanding a refund of her money.
Giving an in-depth explanation on the matter, Aborisade stated that his client was detained by the policemen, who suddenly became debt collectors, N50,000 was extorted as bail money and his car impounded.
He said: “Rev. Gold was invited through a telephone communication with the Area Command of the Nigeria Police Force, Testing Ground, Idi-Ape, Ibadan, on September 10, 2019, pursuant to another petition written by the petitioner. The Reverend said the Petitioner, Mrs. Akintimehin, attached the contractual agreement for the said sum between him and the petitioner to the second petition addressed to the Area Command.
“The Police at the Area Command coerced my client to issue a postdated cheque to the sum of N14.5 million. This was in spite of his insistence that he did not have money in that account. Though my client was released on bail after paying the sum of N50, 000 and providing a surety, his car (Reg. No. LSR03AR), was impounded, as security for the cheque, which he was coerced to issue.
“Three days after, Inspector Ayo called the clergyman and informed him that the cheque bounced and that he should report at the police station with a view to issuing another cheque. He explained that he was in Lagos, running around to raise the sum involved and that he was not in a position to report on that day. He asked to be given another date for the sole purpose that he does not have money in his account and that issuing another cheque, which would bounce, would not solve the problem.
“Inspector Ayo then invited Reverend Gold’s surety, Pastor Emmanuel Umoren, to report at the Police Station on Friday, September 20, 2019, by 3pm. On the arrival of the surety at the Police Station, he was detained and he has been held in custody till date. His car has also been impounded.”
Aborisade noted that the clergyman did not deny receiving the loan from the petitioner.
“The key issue is that Mr. Richard Peters, who was directly handling the contract claims that SUBEB, Delta State has not fulfilled its part of the contract. Moreover, Peters is currently ill. All these facts are known to the petitioner. Given the foregoing facts, the relationship between Rev. Gold and the petitioner is contractual, which only the court could adjudicate upon. We contend that the constitutional and statutory roles of the Nigeria Police Force have nothing to do with debt recovery.
“As the name implies, the Nigeria Police Force is empowered, under Section 4 of the Police Act, CAP P19, Laws of the Federation, to prevent and detect crime, apprehend offenders, preserve law and order, protect life and property and enforce all laws and regulations. The transaction between the petitioner and Rev. Gold is purely contractual and it is outside the jurisdiction of the Nigeria Police,” he stated.
In a petition dated September 21, 2019 and addressed to The Area Commander, The Area Command, Nigeria Police Force, Testing Ground, Idi- Ape, Ibadan, copying the Commissioner of Police, Oyo State Command, and the IGP, on behalf of his client, Comrade Aborisade had made references to law and judicial pronouncements, prohibiting the police from dabbling into civil matters.
In a similar incident, Chijoke Agu, a businessman in Lagos has called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, to intervene in his continued harassment by policemen from the Zone 2 Police Command, following a business disagreement between him and Shaka Momoh.
Agu had sold a property (house) to Momoh, who later said he was no longer interested in the property and asked for a refund of the money he paid for the house.
Momoh later took the matter to the X- Squad, Zone 2 Police Headquarters, Onikan, Lagos. Agu said the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), simply identified as Steve of the X Squad, has been trying to force him to issue a postdated cheque to Momoh.
According to him: “But I said I can’t issue a cheque because I don’t have sufficient balance in my account and would not want to be accused of issuing a dud cheque. I, however, asked to be allowed to be paying the money gradually while I put the property up for sale. Although I have started paying, and have so far paid N5 million out of N25 million, and promised to be paying in something every week, the IPO is still insisting I should give them a post-dated cheque. There is no money in the account and the house in question, which I have put up for sale, has not been sold.”.
Speaking on this development, the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), called on IGP Adamu, to put measure to checkmate the excesses of some policemen who have turned themselves into “Debt Collector”.
According to the Executive Director of RULAAC, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, some Nigerians are being victimised by some police officers, who have deviated from their primary role of securing lives and properties.
Nwanguma explained that RULAAC had received several complaints of such acts, hence the need to call the IGP’s attention to the developing trend, which could further rubbish the already battered image of the police, if not checked.
“RULAAC is concerned by incessant incidences and complaints by citizens against some police officers, who dabble into civil matters and in many instances twist clearly civil matters to appear ‘criminal’ just in order for them to justify their exceeding the limit of their duties and powers whereupon they begin to harass and intimidate innocent persons for the purpose of extorting money from them or gaining another selfish financial benefit,” Nwanguma noted.
The RULAAC director cited the two cases above as instances of such abuse of power by the police, some of whom he said detained the alleged erring party for days and even extorted them in the name of bail.
He said: “The police are not and should not in any community of civilised people be used as debt or levy collectors. The courts have in strong terms condemned the use of policemen and soldiers in the resolution or settlement of disputes among people, as such use of policemen often leads to infringement on the fundamental rights of others.
“Section 4 of the Police Act, which deals with the duties of the Nigeria Police does not empower the police to enforce a contract or to collect rents or common debts. Successive Inspectors General of Police have recognised the foregoing position of the law, which clarifies the powers and duties of the police and have consequently, warned Police Officers to desist from dabbling into civil matters.
“Three years ago in 2017, the then Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, in Benin, Edo State, warned officers of the Nigeria Police Force against criminalising civil offences and unduly dabbling into land matters, as these attract civil litigation to the Force. Nigeria Police is not a debt collection or recovery agency. The Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 explicitly prohibits police to arresting anyone merely for civil matters. However, the common practice is that some police officers, contrary to the powers and duties of the police under the law, dabble into land disputes or debt recovery in order to receive some percentage of the recovered debts and to further extort bribe from the ‘accused’ persons in exchange for releasing them on ‘bail’.
“In many cases, the police officers intimidate and compel people to sign postdated cheques of the value of the debts they are accused of owing even when such persons complain that they don’t have sufficient balances in their accounts and the same police officers would then turn round to accuse them of issuing dud cheques.”
RULAAC, therefore, called on the IGP to make a public statement, restating that police officer are not to, and shall no longer, dabble into civil matters, which often leads to the abuse of the rights of innocent citizens, among other measures.