Date: 2016-04-11

A Human Rights Activist and lawyer, Deji Gbadeyan, has demanded N20 million from the Nigeria Police as damages over invasion of his client's petrol station in Ilorin.

Gbadeyan made the demand in a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, for alleged police invasion of a petrol station, a subject matter of a suit pending before an Ilorin High Court. The petition dated April 5, 2016 was made available to News Agency of Nigeria of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilorin on Sunday.

The lawyer said the amount was the alleged incessant, unperturbed and unrepentant act of impunity of the police against his client. The said petition was titled; "Police Invasion of Petrol Station and Arrest of Security man in Violation and Intermeddling with the Subject Matter of a Pending Action in Court".

According to him, the petition is in respect of a case Obajemu versus Obajemu suit No.KW/39/2016 before Justice Mathew Adewara of an Ilorin High Court. NAN reports that Gbadeyan was the counsel to Ayodele Obajemu, son of late John Olorunleke Obejemu, owner of the Total Petrol station, Taiwo Road, Ilorin. NAN also reports that Ayodele Obajemu had dragged his mother, Mrs Alice Obajemu and six siblings to court praying the court to retrain them from selling his father's property.

"This is our second letter showing act of self-help by the parties to the above mentioned suit through the instrumentality of your men at SIB Police Headquarters, Ilorin. "The first letter written in respect of such impunity and served on the Commissioner of Police, Ilorin, is herewith attached for your ease of reference," Gbadeyan said in the petition.

He further said that Justice Adewara had taken over hearing of the matter as against the one done by the SIB officers at the Police Headquarters, Ilorin. Gbadeyan said Justice Adewara had earlier granted an order of exparte injunction restraining the purported seller and the buyer of the petrol station from intermeddling with the operation of the filling station. The exparte order was granted pending the hearing and determination of motion on notice for interlocutory injunction filed by the plaintiff. "Ordinarily, the exparte order was supposed to last seven days but the court waited till March 21, 2016 before terminating it after all parties had submitted to the court for adjudication.

"All the parties having submitted to the jurisdiction of the court it became expedient therefore to terminate the exparte order of injunction in accordance with the dictates of the rules of court." Gbadeyan said that the purported buyer and sellers who were parties before the court took termination of the exparte order to be justification for the re-entry into the premises of the petrol station.

He further accused the sellers and buyers of forcible re-entry into the station, offices, wanton destruction of trees in the premises and seizure of his client's property on the land. "On Thursday, March 31st, 2016 about six men led by Abubakar Gambari went into the petrol station and served our client's security man with an order terminating the order of injunction.

"They immediately swung into action of breaking all the padlocks in the offices; they packed out all of our client's property and left them outside. "The properties were still outside until around 8 p.m. when our client came and returned them into the offices so as not to be looted. "On Monday April 4, 2016 around 8 a.m. about 10 police men fully armed from SIB, Kwara State Police Command came to the petrol station alongside Abubakar Gambari and arrested our client's security man on duty, Ayodele Ismail. "This was done under the watchful eyes of the police, Abubakar Gambari and his men ordered the destruction of the trees planted on the land.

"They brought out our client's workers and his properties out of the offices and started throwing them at any willing bystander as gifts," Gbadeyan said. Gbadeyan maintained that there was nowhere in the order of termination of the exparte order, any court order or document authorising the purported buyer and seller to take possession of the petrol station. He said it is common sense that the court would not have ordered the buyer and seller to take possession of the filling station while the matter was still pending before it.

According to him, to do otherwise will have been to determine the entire case to be heard on Tuesday, April 12, 2016 behind his client without affording him fair hearing. Gbadeyan, therefore, demanded immediate release of the arrested security man, restoration of his client's properties as they were before the alleged self-help actions.