Justice Halilu Yusuf of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has turned down a request by the Inspector-General of Police to issue bench warrant against five former senior police officers on charges of forgery and age falsification.
All the accused person were absent in court on Thursday, when the case came up when they were supposed to be arraigned.
Their scheduled arraignment was stalled due to the inability of the police to effect personal service on them.
During the proceedings, prosecution counsel, Rimamsomte Ezekiel, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), expressed disappointment that the defendants were absent in court despite being served with the charge.
He told the court that investigators made several attempts to serve the defendants through their known residential addresses only to discover that they had relocated.
Ezekiel added that he took extra efforts to send a soft copy of the charge to their WhatsApp platforms and wondered why they were not present in court.
He prayed the court to issue a bench warrant against them in accordance with the provision of section 266(1) of the Administrative of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.
However, Terkaa Aondo (SAN), who announced his appearance for the defendants, informed the court that none of the defendants have been served with a copy of the charge.
“My Lord, up till now, the defendants have not been served with a copy of the charge. My Lord, this is not a civil but a criminal matter which requires personal service.
“Besides, until the defendants are properly served by the court, the request by the prosecution for a bench warrant is premature. The police has the apparatus to bring the defendants to court. If they can go all the way to arrest Nnamdi Kanu in Kenya and also arrest Omoyele Sowore, why can’t they arrest the defendants and bring them to court? So, I urge the court to refuse the request and order the prosecution to do the needful,” Aondo submitted.
In his ruling, Justice Yusuf agreed with the senior defence counsel that the matter, being a criminal charge requires personal service on the defendants.
Justice Yusuf equally agreed that the police has all the apparatus to arrest and bring the defendants to court for their arraignment.
The officers, AIG Idowu Owohunwa (Rtd), CP Benneth Igweh (Rtd), CP Ukachi Peter Opara (Rtd), DCP Obo Ukam Obo (Rtd), ACP Simon A. Lough SAN (Rtd) and others now at large, were accused of committing the offence of conspiracy with intent to commit criminal offence punishable under Section 97 (1) (2) of the Penal Code Law, being members of force entrants of the Nigeria Police Force on or about 1999 till date in FCT Abuja.
They were also accused of falsifying and altering their ages and documents in the name of Nigeria Police Force in which they failed and could not vacate from office when they supposed to leave on retirement in line with Public Service Rule of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The defendants allegedly remained in office and illegally benefited the privileges of their offices, thereby committing the offence of cheating, punishable under Section 324 of the Penal Code Law.
AIG Owohunwa (Rtd) was alleged to have on or about 30th April, 2021 in FCT Abuja, as a member of force entrants of the Nigeria Police Force Course 19 issued directives in the name of the Inspector-General of Police on the implementation of judgments which he knew to be by fraud with fake and falsified documents, an offence punishable under Section 178 of the Penal Code Law.
ACP Lough, SAN (Rtd) was also accused of dishonestly and fraudulently deposing to process of court in the case of AIG Idowu Owohunwa & 2 others v. PSC & 7 others, suit No: NICN/ABJ/88/2025 in March, 2025 in FCT Abuja, where he claimed to have only served for 25 years in the Police, “knowing that, you are lying and also dishonest when you enlisted into the Nigeria Police Force on 1st August, 1987 and thereby committed offence punishable under Section 158(1) of the Penal Code Law.”
For Owohunwa, he was slammed with a charge with intent to remain serving in the Police against the provision of the public Service Rules of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, by alleged dishonest falsification and submission of a declaration of age dated 4th April, 1990 from Kogi State of Nigeria, where he claimed to be born on 20 July, 1970, an offence punishable under Section 366 of the Penal Code Law.
