IGP Orders Withdrawal Of Suit On Lagos Land Dispute Over Forgery

Inspector general of police (IGP), Usman Baba, has ordered Zone 2 Command to withdraw the suit filed at the High Court of Lagos against the managing director, Masters Reality International Concepts Limited, Lai Omotola, in respect to a disputed land at 63 Iju road, Agege, saying the documents used in filing the case were forged.

The IGP in the certified true copy signed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Ibrahim Musa, Head, IGP Monitoring Unit, Nigeria Police Force, Force Headquarters, Abuja obtained by our correspondent said the investigation was inconclusive.

The letter stated that it was observed that the counter petition by Adeniyi Odunsi investigated by Alabi Akinjide, a chief superintendent of police against the complainant (Omotola) was not formally received with an official stamp and at the same time no minute of approval by the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 2 as admitted by Alabi.

The letter “Given the circumstances surrounding this case and findings, it is obvious that Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos conducted a shoddy and lopsided investigation of the case initially reported by the complainant against CSP Yinka Egbeyemi and Mr. Owolabi Arole, the Head of Lagos State Taskforce on Land Grabbing who supervised the demolishing of the structures erected by the complainant and made a newspaper publication to that effect on Monday 27th, January, 2020 in Punch Newspaper.

“The suspect’s refusal to report at Zone 2 to respond to the allegations reported by the complainant and the discontinuing of investigation of the case by police to a logical conclusion without reasonable cause suggest that the investigation was inconclusive,” it said.

The IGP recommended that “in the interest of fairness and justice, the charge filed at High Court of Lagos State against the complainant be withdrawn by Zone 2 and the entire case be re-assigned to Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) for thorough and comprehensive investigation of the case of malicious damage, threat to life and conduct likely to cause breach of public peace as reported by the complainant while the police should stay away from the dispute of ownership of land which is civil and already pending before a court of competent jurisdiction.”