The House of Representatives has
ordered the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Idris Ibrahim, to unseal the
National Headquarters of Peace Corps of Nigeria within 21 days.
This follows the recommendation
by the House Committee on Public Petitions, which conducted investigative
hearing into the “illegal” closure of Peace Corps facilities and the alleged
disobedience to subsisting court orders to unseal the premises.
Peace Corps facilities located at
number 57, Iya Abubakar Crescent, off Alex Ekwueme street, opposite Jabi lake,
Abuja, had been under lock and keys by the police since February 28th, 2017,
the day the property was commissioned.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole of
Federal High Court, Abuja, had on the 9th November 2017, ordered that the
office be unsealed, while awarding N12.5m damages against the Police.
In a similar development, Justice
John Tsoho of another division of Federal High Court Abuja, had also, on the
15th January, 2018, given judgement that Police should vacate the Peace Corps
office.
None of the judgements was obeyed
and no valid stay of execution was obtained by the Police whose operatives and
vehicles are permanently stationed at the premises.
Irked by the development, a group
under the aegis of Coalition of Civil Society Organisations for Justice and
Equity, petitioned the National Assembly, urging it to intervene in order “to
save our democracy and insist on rule of law.”
Presenting the report of the
investigation to the plenary on Wednesday, Chairman of the House Committee on Public
Petitions, Hon. Nkem Abonta, said series of invitations were sent to the
Inspector-General of Police to appear before the committee but he refused to
honour.
Abonta also said, the committee
obtained a document which showed that, the Attorney-General of the Federation
(AGF) Abubakar Malami wrote to the IGP and advised him to honour the subsisting
court orders, “in absence of any appeal or valid stay of execution.”
He told the House that, a legal
officer who represented the IGP at public hearing committed perjury, stressing
that, “he lied under oath that there was a valid stay of execution”, but when
time was given that he produced a proof of stay, he could not produce any.
Abonta expressed concern that, it
would spell doom for Nigerian democracy and it would also give room to anarchy,
if “an agency of the Federal Government (police) continues to disobey orders of
the court.”
While adopting the recommendation
of the committee, the House urged Police to comply with the subsisting court
orders and the instruction from the AGF.
The police have 21 days from the
commencement of Wednesday’s plenary, to vacate the properties of Peace Corps.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com