Demolition: Traders ask I-G to investigate police officers involvement
Abuja Traders’ Association has asked the Inspector-General (I-G) of Police, Usman Baba, to order the arrest and prosecution of 30 police officers used by Urban Shelter Limited to supervise the alleged illegal demolition of structures at the Abuja shopping complex.
The association also drew the attention of the I-G to the arrest, intimidation, and harassment of its executive officers by the police acting on the instruction of Urban Shelter Limited.
The traders made the allegations in a petition to Baba dated April 28, 2023, through their counsel, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume, SAN.
Ume, who gave a detailed background of how the company, in flagrant disobedience to a subsisting court order, mobilized the officers, allegedly tagged to be fake, to give protection to the demolition of the structures at the UTC, Area 7, urged the I-G to intervene.
“The said policemen arrived at the UTC, Area 7 Shopping Complex, at about 5 a.m. on April 4 and gave fake police protection to the illegal demolition team organized by Urban Shelter in its efforts to demolish the complex.
“The fact that this illegal demolition done on the complex and its environs that day was all done by the illegal demolition team recruited by Urban Shelter and Abuja Metropolitan Management Council is axiomatic,” the petition read in part.
The lawyer called on the police boss not to allow the Nigerian Police Force to be used as a tool for promoting the selfish interests of an agent provocateur.
He drew the attention of the police to the relevant provisions of its Act and the 1999 Constitution, which are to protect society from acts of criminality, the lives and property of citizens, apprehend offenders, and preserve law and order.
“It is wrong for the Nigerian Police Force to lend itself as a tool for disobedience of court orders and manipulations by selfish persons."
“It is therefore demanding on your office to immediately take measures to prosecute the 30 perons impersonating your officers and those who aided them, that is, Urban Shelter, as well as ensure that the officers of the Traders’ Association are not harassed,” Ume said.
